More Rwandans seek repatriation from DR Congo, UN

New York, 09 Feb-(ANA)-A growing number of Rwandan civilians, 

many of whom have been in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)since the 1994 genocide in their country, are 

emerging from remote areas to go home, the United Nations refugee agency  has said. 

“The Rwandan civilians, mainly women and children, say that they are returning home willingly,” Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, noting that so far this year the agency’s teams have assisted 1,417 Rwandan civilians to return. 

Meanwhile in Uganda, UNHCR has started to move Congolese refugees from the Matanda transit centre near the border with the DRC into a newly-designated settlement area called Kyangwali, 420 kilometres northeast. 

Some 41,000 Congolese, mostly women and children, have fled fighting in North Kivu province to Uganda since August 2008, overcrowding the previously-designated Nakivale refugee settlement.

The UNHCR operation in Uganda assists more than 155,000 refugees, the agency said, mostly from the DRC and Sudan.(ANA)

FA/ANA/09 February 2009---