60,000 Congolese flee to Uganda after rebel attack
15 July 2013 10:55 PM GMT
More than 60,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda after a rebel attack on a town near the border in a continuing influx that is stretching humanitarian capacities, an aid group said on Sunday.
The Uganda Red Cross has already registered 41,000 refugees and that 20,000 more are yet to go through that process, said spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde. ‘Currently we are looking at about 65,000 people,’ she said.
The refugees are entering Uganda though the frontier district of Bundibugyo and many have found temporary shelter on the campuses of three schools there, she said.
The refugee influx continues three days after a Ugandan-led rebel group attacked Kamango town and killed some people on Thursday, according to Ugandan military officials who are concerned the rebels are about to launch a major assault on Ugandan territory.
The offensive rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces, had been hiding out in the jungles of eastern Congo for years since it was ousted from Ugandan territory. The group was formed in the early 1990s by Ugandan Muslims who said they had been sidelined by the policies of Uganda’s long-serving president and who want to rule Uganda according to shariah law.
The Uganda Red Cross has already registered 41,000 refugees and that 20,000 more are yet to go through that process, said spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde. ‘Currently we are looking at about 65,000 people,’ she said.
The refugees are entering Uganda though the frontier district of Bundibugyo and many have found temporary shelter on the campuses of three schools there, she said.
The refugee influx continues three days after a Ugandan-led rebel group attacked Kamango town and killed some people on Thursday, according to Ugandan military officials who are concerned the rebels are about to launch a major assault on Ugandan territory.
The offensive rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces, had been hiding out in the jungles of eastern Congo for years since it was ousted from Ugandan territory. The group was formed in the early 1990s by Ugandan Muslims who said they had been sidelined by the policies of Uganda’s long-serving president and who want to rule Uganda according to shariah law.
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