Brass For Africa
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News update -- 8 June 2004 bulletin
- News release from CMS UK 1 June 2004
- Dissident forces withdraw from Bukavu 8 June 2004
News release from CMS UK
Received via CMS Australia today (8 June 2004)...
Subject: ETHNIC KILLING RE-ERUPTS IN CONGO
NEWS RELEASE
1 June 2004
CHURCH BEARS BRUNT OF 'ETHNIC FIGHTING' IN CONGO
The Church Mission Society has rushed emergency humanitarian assistance to thousands of refugees fleeing into Rwanda, following renewed fighting near Bukavu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Philip Bingham, the CMS Regional Manager for Mid-Africa, handed over an initial £2,000, following an appeal from the Archbishop of Rwanda, Emmanuel Kolini.
Over four thousand refugees are reported to have crossed into already devastated Rwanda since the fighting broke out on Tuesday 20 May. Of these refugees, some have found shelter in the homes of friends and relatives, but 2,600 are camping in the transit camp near the headquarters of Rwandan Diocese of Cyangugu and about three hundred are in the church compound, which is about half a kilometre from Bukavu, DR Congo. At least one thousand refugees are seeking help among various other churches in the Cyangungu area.
The Bishop of Cyangugu, Geoffrey Rwobusisi, said, "Refugees are coming with a few belongings, and some with nothing. We have not established the exact number of the people killed in Bukavu, but roughly 25 are said to have been killed."
He expressed fear that the fighting was taking on an ethnic nature.
"Formerly it was soldier against soldier, but now there are fights involving families," Rwobusisi said.
Tadeo Mutwale, a refugee who escaped to Rwanda with 12 family members said he knew of 14 women and children who had been killed in Bukavu, and that homes were being looted.
"Many people left without shoes, clothing, food, or anything to sleep on. People have nothing to keep themselves warm," Mutwale said.
CMS in Africa and UK is making an appeal to churches and individuals to pray for the affected people, as well as contribute to the material and financial needs of the refugees.
Ends
For more information contact Jenny Taylor, CMS UK Head of Media, on +44 (0)207 803 3387 or 07733 407620 or Julia Katorobo in Kampala, +256 77 439394.
Dissident forces withdraw from Bukavu
NAIROBI, 8 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - Dissident army troops have largely
withdrawn from the embattled eastern Congolese town of Bukavu, but
approximately 100 of them have remained in the town while others are
stationed around an airport to the north, UN News reported on Monday,
quoting UN spokesman Fred Eckhard.
Speaking to reporters at the daily briefing at the UN headquarters in New
York, Eckhard said reports from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, indicated that 100 dissident troops
loyal to Col. Jules Mutebutsi were in Bukavu, "having left the
cantonment site they were in outside the town".
The dissidents seized Bukavu on Wednesday in what their leaders termed an
attempt to protect the minority Congolese Tutsi, known as Banyamulenge,
from persecution by a military commander assigned to the region by the
transitional government.
UN News reported that the dissidents seized the town as the organisation
of the national military in the area collapsed and some loyalist soldiers
took refuge in the "relatively small" UN force.
Eckhard said no other troop movements had been noted, and that a student
protest had been called off.
"Gen Laurent Nkunda [the other leader of the dissident soldiers] has
pledged to the UN mission that he does not intend to return to Bukavu and
will continue to relocate to areas close to and in Goma [in the
neighbouring North Kivu Province], from where his forces originated.
However, his forces continue to be around Kavumu, the airport north of
Bukavu," Eckhard was quoted as saying.
On Monday, a MONUC spokesman, Sebastien Lapierre, told IRIN that UN
representatives had engaged in military level negotiations with the
leaders of the dissidents to coordinate their withdrawal from Bukavu.
Despite promises of a complete withdrawal, MONUC reported that as of
Sunday, a substantial number of dissident soldiers remained on the streets
of Bukavu.
In light of these facts, the security situation for humanitarian workers
remained a concern, Lapierre said.
Electricity and running water have been restored in Bukavu and aid workers
were able to access the hundreds of internally displaced people who remain
inside the MONUC compound. MONUC estimated that, at the height of the
crisis, its headquarters was host to 1,300 IDPs.
The material contained on this article comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this article, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004