DRC wars displace 1.5 million
2007-01-11 21:21
Kinshasa - Almost 1.5 million people remain displaced from their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), more than three years after the last war, announced the UN refugee agency on Thursday.
A million people are internally displaced, while 410 000 are refugees across the borders of the vast central African nation, said the Kinshasa office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The agency was upbeat about the humanitarian situation after the DRC in 2006 saw its first democratic elections since independence, but stressed that this country was still its "most important operation" in the central and east African Great Lakes region.
"Many refugees decided to return to take part in the electoral process and considered that the situation was returning to normal in their country, with conditions were safe to go back," said UNHCR spokesperson in Kinshasa Jens Hesemann.
About 37 000 Congolese were repatriated last year and more than 26 000 of them got help from the UNHCR, which had only been able to assist 14 000 people of the 47 200 who returned home in 2005, said the statement.
Refugees still hesitant to go home
Refugees wanted to go back to the DRC in spite of the difficulties caused by the poor condition of most roads, other transport difficulties and tribal and political unrest persistent in the east, said the agency.
"However, numerous refugees still hesitate," said Hesemann. "After security, their priority is to be able to live with dignity. In many regions, the facilities for welcoming refugees are deplorable, for lack of infrastructure and public services."
Now that President Joseph Kabila has been voted into office and the country has an elected parliament, "we have to move on from assistance to development," he added, pointing out that the number of people coming back to the eastern Sud-Kivu province and Equateur province in the northwest creates a "terrible burden" for local communities hard put to meet their own needs.
More than half of a million internally displaced people are in Nord-Kivu province, where armed militias still roam and the regular army late last year battled renegade troops. Of the 410 000 refugees in neighbouring countries, 130 000 are in Tanzania, 73 000 in Uganda and 59 700 in Zambia.