FRIDAY, 12.30PM
A UN transit camp for refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo was raided before dawn on Thursday by government soldiers who herded almost all the several hundred refugees to the nearby airport and flew them to Rwanda.
The UN High Commisson for Refugees described the incident as: “The soldiers surrounded the UNHCR transit center in Kisangani at 4am, herded all the occupants except for a few pregnant women to the airport. They sealed off the route to the airport and denied UNHCR access to the group.”
The camp held 336 Rwandans and 353 Burundians awaiting screening to determine who deserved formal refugee status.
The UNHCR said the action was a “blatant breach of international refugee treaties”. As a result of the incident, High Commissioner Sadako Ogata “will review the UNHCR’s continued operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the UNHCR said.