UN confirms influx of Congolese refugees into South Sudan
September 30, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The U.N. refugees agency (UNHCR) today has confirmed reports of an influx of Congolese refugees into Yambio County, close to Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The refugees fled to the capital of Western Equatoria State following a series of attacks carried earlier this month by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on the DRC villages of Dura, Baote, Peturua, Naipayan, Kiro, Bikwoto. The Ugandan rebel at the time dismissed the attacks.
The LRA, led by the elusive Joseph Kony, has led one of Africa’s longest-running guerrilla wars against the government in Kampala. They are notorious for abducting children to use as child soldiers and sex slaves.
Local authorities and aid agencies operating in the area reported that approximately 1,200 refugees fled to the villages of Gangura and Sakure following attacks by armed groups believed to be LRA fighters around Dungu. A four-day journey on foot brought the refugees to safety behind SPLA lines inside South Sudan.
On 27 September, a UNHCR emergency assessment team visited Gangura, a small village about 15 kms south of Yambio town and 10 kms north of the DRC border, where 700 Congolese settled. MSF Spain runs a clinic in the village and is treating a number of refugees wounded in the attacks.
Refugees gave accounts of abducted children and homes set ablaze in acts of savagery.
Asked why they fled to Sudan, they disclosed that the LRA had blocked all other routes out of the region. Unconfirmed reports indicate that bodies were seen floating in rivers along the way.
The LRA has been successfully driven out of northern Uganda but continues to carry out raids in Congo, Sudan, and Central African Republic from bases in Congo’s Garamba National Park.
In June, Uganda, Congo and Sudan agreed to coordinate military efforts to stamp out the 20-year LRA rebellion, which worsens instability in a remote, mineral-rich region of Africa.
Northern Uganda’s two-decade civil war forced around 2 million people from their homes and destabilised neighbouring parts of oil-producing south Sudan and mineral-rich east Congo
(ST)