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UNHCR begins registration of more than 100,000 Congolese refugees

News Stories, 18 January 2010

© UNHCR/B.B.Diallo
A Congolese refugee prepares vegetables in the village where she has found shelter in Republic of the Congo.

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo, January 18 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has begun registering more than 100,000 civilians who have fled ethnic conflict in north-west Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and found shelter in neighbouring Republic of the Congo in the past three months.

Some 107,000 Congolese from DRC's Equateur province have fled across the Oubangui River into the north-eastern ROC department of Likouala since ethnic Enyele militiamen launched deadly assaults in late October on ethnic Munzayas over fishing and farming rights in the Dongo area of Equateur.

The registration exercise kicked off Saturday in Likouala's Betou district, which is hosting more than 60 per cent of the refugees. The rest are scattered in the district of Impfondo, further south in Likouala. Some 1,000 people have been registered to date.

A UNHCR spokesperson said the registration was "designed to ascertain the number of refugees and to properly identify them. We will also be profiling refugee families to determine their specific needs and cater our assistance programmes accordingly."

A team of about 50 people, comprising UNHCR staff and local authorities, is carrying out the registration on a 500-kilometre-long stretch of territory along the Oubangui.

The operation, which took several weeks to prepare, is logistically challenging as the majority of the refugees are in areas that can only be reached by boat.

The water levels are receding and UNHCR is running against time to complete the registration before the dry season starts in March and rivers become too low for navigation.

Meanwhile, the refugee agency continues to deliver emergency assistance to the widely dispersed refugees. "So far we were able to ferry 161 metric tonnes of aid material for some 50,000 refugees. This aid includes blankets, plastic sheeting for shelter, kitchen sets, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, which are being handed to the most vulnerable as a matter of priority," the UNHCR spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic, where another 18,000 refugees from Equateur province have sought safety, UNHCR teams conducted a registration exercise in late December and continue to register new arrivals trickling in from the Libenge area.

Back in Equateur province, UNHCR is taking part in an inter-agency humanitarian assessment mission to identify the needs of an estimated 90,000 internally displaced people affected by the ethnic violence and tensions.

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Registration

The recording, verifying, and updating of information on people of concern to UNHCR so they can be protected and UNHCR can ultimately find durable solutions.

Congo's river refugees

More than 100,000 Congolese refugees have crossed the Oubangui River in search of safety in neighbouring Republic of the Congo since inter-ethnic violence erupted in their home areas late last year. They fled from Equateur province in the north-west of Democratic Republic of the Congo after Enyele militiamen launched deadly assaults in October on ethnic Munzayas over fishing and farming rights in the Dongo area. The tensions have spread to other parts of the province.

The majority of the displaced are camping in public buildings and some 100 sites along a 600-kilometre stretch of the Oubangui River, including with host communities. The massive influx is stretching the meagre resources of the impoverished and remote region. Help is urgently needed for both the refugees and the host communities.

The relief operation is logistically complex and expensive because the region can only be reached by plane or boat. However, few boats are available and most are in need of repair. Fuel is expensive and difficult to procure.

Congo's river refugees

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

As a massive food distribution gets underway in six UNHCR-run camps for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese in North Kivu, the UN refugee agency continues to hand out desperately needed shelter and household items.

A four-truck UNHCR convoy carrying 33 tonnes of various aid items, including plastic sheeting, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans crossed Wednesday from Rwanda into Goma, the capital of the conflict-hit province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The aid, from regional emergency stockpiles in Tanzania, was scheduled for immediate distribution. The supplies arrived in Goma as the World Food Programme (WFP), with assistance from UNHCR, began distributing food to some 135,000 displaced people in the six camps run by the refugee agency near Goma.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced since the fighting resumed in August in North Kivu. Estimates are that there are now more than 1.3 million displaced people in this province alone.

Posted on 6 November 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Since 2006, renewed conflict and general insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province has forced some 400,000 people to flee their homes – the country's worst displacement crisis since the formal end of the civil war in 2003. In total, there are now some 800,000 people displaced in the province, including those uprooted by previous conflicts.

Hope for the future was raised in January 2008 when the DRC government and rival armed factions signed a peace accord. But the situation remains tense in North Kivu and tens of thousands of people still need help. UNHCR has opened sites for internally displaced people (IDPs) and distributed assistance such as blankets, plastic sheets, soap, jerry cans, firewood and other items to the four camps in the region. Relief items have also been delivered to some of the makeshift sites that have sprung up.

UNHCR staff have been engaged in protection monitoring to identify human rights abuses and other problems faced by IDPs and other populations at risk across North Kivu.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Posted on 28 May 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

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