UN troops deploy as refugees flee DR Congo clashes

UN troops deploy as refugees flee DR Congo clashes
Nov 14, 2007 02:52
JOHNNY512 Points: Join Date: Nov 29, 2004 Status: offline	(Source: AFP UN peacekeeping forces deployed to protect displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after fighting broke out between the army and insurgents and tens of thousands fled their camps, the United Nations said Tuesday. More than 28,000 displaced villagers Tuesday fled their desolate camps in the DR Congo's Nord-Kivu province when soldiers loyal to a renegade ex-general attacked army positions nearby, triggering clashes. "MONUC (the UN mission in DRC) has strengthened its forces in the Mugunga sector," where three camps housed displaced people in appalling conditions to the west of the provincial capital Goma, MONUC spokesman Kemal Saiki said in Kinshasa. In all, about 60 soldiers with armoured vehicles have been deployed in the battle zone and around the camps "to protect civilians" and their units were on maximum alert, Saiki told AFP. The fighting forced "an estimated 28,500 people" among 38,000 in the Mugunga I, Mugunga II and Lac Vert camps, to flee on foot and in panic through torrential rain either towards Goma or towards another camp, Jens Hesemann of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said earlier. DR Congo army Colonel Delphin Kahimbi said "27 insurgents were killed" when the forces loyal to cashiered general, Laurent Nkunda, "had the objective of massacring the displaced in Mugunga." He also said a second force of Nkunda's fighters had moved against "Rusayo (further south) with Goma as the goal."

Nov 14, 2007 02:52

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(Source: AFP
UN peacekeeping forces deployed to protect displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after fighting broke out between the army and insurgents and tens of thousands fled their camps, the United Nations said Tuesday.

More than 28,000 displaced villagers Tuesday fled their desolate camps in the DR Congo's Nord-Kivu province when soldiers loyal to a renegade ex-general attacked army positions nearby, triggering clashes.

"MONUC (the UN mission in DRC) has strengthened its forces in the Mugunga sector," where three camps housed displaced people in appalling conditions to the west of the provincial capital Goma, MONUC spokesman Kemal Saiki said in Kinshasa.

In all, about 60 soldiers with armoured vehicles have been deployed in the battle zone and around the camps "to protect civilians" and their units were on maximum alert, Saiki told AFP.

The fighting forced "an estimated 28,500 people" among 38,000 in the Mugunga I, Mugunga II and Lac Vert camps, to flee on foot and in panic through torrential rain either towards Goma or towards another camp, Jens Hesemann of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said earlier.

DR Congo army Colonel Delphin Kahimbi said "27 insurgents were killed" when the forces loyal to cashiered general, Laurent Nkunda, "had the objective of massacring the displaced in Mugunga."

He also said a second force of Nkunda's fighters had moved against "Rusayo (further south) with Goma as the goal."

Nov 14, 2007 02:59	#1
JOHNNY512 Points: Join Date: Nov 29, 2004 Status: Offline	Refugee is a very serious problem for Africa's development. UN's action in Africa is just like a tip of an iceberg compared with the conflicts between the African warlords.

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