DRC: UN sets up new refugee camp

2010-08-24 14:31

Kinshasa - The United Nations has set up a new refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than 1 500 refugees fleeing rebels of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the UN said on Tuesday.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the camp at Kpala-Kpala in the north of DRC was for people coming across the border from the Central African Republic, where the LRA is active.

"In spite of major logistical difficulties, the HCR and its partners have established the refugee camp at Kpala-Kpala, notably by building emergency shelters and latrines, and by tapping a source of water."

Caritas Germany and the Congolese National Commission for Refugees are also taking part in the relief effort, as are the UN World Food Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The LRA has kidnapped almost 700 people, a third of them children, during attacks in the DRC and the CAR since February 2009, according to a report published in mid-August by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Led by Joseph Kony - who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity - the LRA has a reputation as one of the most brutal guerrilla movements in the world.

It took up arms in 1988 in northern Uganda, but has been largely defeated in that country and extended its activities into the far northeast of the DRC about a decade ago and then into the CAR in 2008.

The LRA is also active in south Sudan.

- AFP