Rwanda: supplies and staff for Congolese arrivals

We have been providing assistance to more than 1,000 Congolese who fled the outbreak of fighting in the Bukavu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo late last week and crossed the border into Rwanda.

According to the local authorities, some 2,000 people crossed the border. Just over 1,000 people have come forward to register for assistance and have received food, blankets and other relief items. According to our teams on the ground in Cyangugu, many of those who fled have found shelter with friends and family, but some 700 are staying in our transit centre in the area.

The vast majority of the refugees fled into Rwanda on Thursday and Friday, and no new arrivals have been reported since Saturday.

We dispatched additional staff to Cyangugu on Friday and another team will arrive today. We sent additional relief supplies including blankets and jerry cans to boost our existing stocks at the transit centre, which arrived on Saturday. We have also been in contact with the World Food Programme to arrange for emergency food rations. Currently, we are looking into expanding the capacity of the existing transit centre, which normally can house some 800 people.