Refugee spillover from LRA attacks reaches 15,000 to Sudan

February 17, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The number Congolese refugees who fled to South Sudan since September 2008 has surpassed 15,000 people, the UN refugees agency said.

Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been attacking towns and villages in Orientale Province, which is about the size of France, killing at least 900 people since December.

The guerillas are being hunted by forces from DR Congo, South Sudan and Uganda, but reportedly have split into groups as small as five fighters in order to strike targets across a vast sweep of jungle and bush.

Last week, UNHCR staff accompanied local authorities to Lasu, a sparsely populated payam (village) in Central Equatoria State of Sudan where they found the population of Congolese refugees had swelled from 2,000 to approximately 6,000. There had been fears of a mass influx of refugees from the town of Aba in northern DRC.

In all, the number of those who have fled the LRA attacks is much higher than 15,000, the number who have reached Sudan. John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, estimated today that 160,000 people have fled the attacks.

Refugees who had fled Aba informed UNHCR there had been another LRA attack on February 11. They confirmed that Aba, a town of some 100,000, was deserted.

However, earlier reports of larger numbers of refugees moving towards Central Equatoria appear to have been unfounded. Indeed they are believed to have fled south towards Aru on DRC’s border with Uganda. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports indicate that LRA were looting property and had abducted 21 people from Neuf about 9 kilometers from Lasu.

“Although apparently in good health, the refugees in Lasu are in need of emergency assistance. They are living in the open, with only one borehole to supply water and no food. There are a considerable numbers of unaccompanied and separated children amongst them,” stated UNHCR.

Aid agencies met subsequently to coordinate response activities. The relief effort is being supported by WFP, UNICEF, ICRC, MSF (Belgium) and MEDAIR.

In Western Equatoria State, the registered population of refugees has reached 9,139. The majority are in Ezo (2,258) near Sudan’s border with DRC and the Central African Republic, Gangura (2,451), Sakure (910) and Yambio (1,813). The remaining 1,707 are scattered in seven villages in Yambio and Maridi Counties in areas adjacent to Sudan’s border with DRC, according to figures provided by UNHCR.

The UN refugee agency said that it is critical to move the refugees away from border areas both for security reasons and to facilitate distribution of aid, especially as access will become impossible when seasonal rains begin.

Refugees are now installing themselves, fearing to return to their attacked home areas. Demarcation of plots at Makpandu camp, north of Yambio, is completed and construction of shelters and sanitation facilities is ongoing with 395 of the planned 2,000 shelters completed.

LRA forces, while originally drawn primarily from the Acholi people of northern Uganda, have largely been driven west from their home areas after over a decade of preying on Sudanese border communities and Acholi from whom they forcibly recruited.

(ST)