FRIDAY, 4.30PM:
THOUSANDS of terrified civilians are fleeing across the Congo river to Kinshasa following renewed heavy fighting around the Congolese capital of Brazzaville between forces loyal to President Pascal Lissouba and the militia of former dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Most of those fleeing the recent surge in fighting are women and children from Brazzaville districts like Poto-Poto, Moungali, Ouenze and Talangi which are held by militia fighters loyal to Sassou Nguesso.
The river bank on the Kinshasa side of the river has been turned into a refugee registration centre, with hundreds of people stretched out on the ground or on mattresses waiting to be dealt with by staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some 2 500 refugees arrived on Thursday. About 20 refugees with bullet wounds received first aid Friday from the Red Cross before being transfered to hospitals.
On Friday morning, immigration services had already registered 200 refugees, adding to the 2 500 Congolese that landed in Kinshasa on Thursday and the 3 000 refugees already in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) capital. The Kinshasa government has allowed the UN to transform an old farm in eastern Kinshasa into a camp for refugees from Brazzaville.
The fighting first broke out when government troops raided Sassou Nguesso’s home in a bid to disarm his militia ahead of presidential elections that were to have been held on July 27. The elections have been indefinitely postponed.
Meanwhile, the heavy shelling in Brazzaville has forced the last remaining United Nations aid agency, the UN Children’s Fund, to pull out of the city. Hans Olsen said Unicef had been forced to abandon its warehouse with about $200 000 worth of foods and medicines and feared this would now be looted.
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