DRCongo refugees to be airlifted home from Sudan

Nov 18, 2005 (DJIBOUTI) — The first chartered flight could be organized mid-December to repatriate Congolese refugees in Sudan, some of whom have been living in the country since 1964, a communique published on Tuesday by a DRCongo Ministry of Interior delegation that had visited Khartoum and Juba said.

According to the the official Djobouti news agency (ADI), all Congolese refugees in Sudan want to return to their country, tired of many decades in exile.

The Congolese delegation was able to be assured by the Sudanese government that agreements to this extent would be signed in Kinshasa on 30 November that would see the repatriation of the first contingent of these refugees by mid-December.

According to the Congolese Interior Ministry, the refugees number about 5,000 having fled the country following the troubles of 1963 and 1964 and other subsequent wars that erupted in 1990 to date, as well as, the deteriorating socio-economic situation in the DRCongo.

(ST)