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U.N.: Refugee 'disaster' looms in Zaire
Aid workers evacuated from scene of fighting
October 22, 1996
Web posted at: 3:10 p.m. EDT (1910 GMT)BUKAVU, Zaire (CNN) -- The United Nations on Tuesday evacuated 48 aid workers trapped by fighting between Zaire's army and ethnic Tutsi guerrillas, known as the Banyamulenge. More than 200,000 Hutu refugees from Rwanda and Burundi have fled their camps at Uvira in eastern Zaire because of the fighting.
The U.N. refugee agency also said it had unconfirmed but "alarming reports" from Zaire's military of fighting around the three biggest camps in the Goma region, which have a total population of 400,000 Rwandan Hutus.
CNN's Catherine Bond on Zaire
Who are the Banyamulenge?
(25 sec./554K AIFF or WAV sound)
"We appeal to all sides to step back from the brink of what now threatens to become a very real humanitarian disaster in a region that has already suffered enough," said Ron Redmond, a spokesman in Geneva for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Food running out
Tens of thousands of exhausted Hutu refugees and displaced Zaireans flooded towards the city of Bukavu in eastern Zaire on Tuesday to escape fighting in Uvira, 100 kilometers (65 miles) to the south.
The fighting has fueled fears that the Tutsi and Hutu rivalry that triggered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the equally bitter civil war in Burundi could engulf the whole Central African Great Lakes region.
As it evacuated aid workers from Uvira, the U.N. said food supplies for refugees would last only six days.
The Banyamulenge, who came to Zaire from Rwanda at the end of the 18th century, accuse indigenous Zaireans of trying to force them to leave.
Zaire accuses the Tutsi-dominated army in Rwanda of stirring up trouble in its already volatile eastern refugee zone by sending in Banyamulenge infiltrators. Rwanda denies the charge.
Correspondent Catherine Bond andReuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Refugees flee fighting in eastern Zaire - October 21, 1996
- Zaire refugee camps site of new ethnic killing - October 13, 1996
- Zaire hospital attacked - October 8, 1996
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