Fate Of Million Refugees Uncertain Aid Workers Evacuate Camps As Fighting In Zaire Spreads
The fate of 1.1 million Rwandan refugees in a string of camps in eastern Zaire remained an urgent question facing the Central African region Sunday, a day after international aid workers were evacuated from the area.
“The real story today is that there are … refugees out there, and we don’t really know what’s happening to them,” said Alison Campbell, spokeswoman for Care International.
More than 100 international aid workers pulled out on Saturday amid continued fighting in and around the Zairian town of Goma, home to 700,000 refugees. The United Nations evacuated them after two days of fighting by Rwandan soldiers and Zairian rebels against the Zairian army and members of the Hutu ethnic group who fled Rwanda in 1994.
The Hutu refugees had flooded into eastern Zaire after massacring at least 500,000 members of the Tutsi ethnic minority. Since a Tutsi rebel force came to power after halting the slaughter, most of the 1.1 million refugees have lived in the camps around Goma, directly across from this border town in northwest Rwanda.
Goma apparently was quiet Sunday. Aside from a couple of brief bursts of gunfire, little action could be heard from Gisenyi.
On Saturday, reporters who had gone into the town reported that many Zairian troops had left by early morning, and that Goma was suffering heavy looting.
Since fighting in Zaire erupted a month ago, most of the refugees in eastern Zaire have fled to the hills, moving farther into Zaire.
But after attacks on two of Goma’s largest camps a week ago, one camp has exploded to 400,000 people. The fate of that camp, known as Mugunga, especially has worried aid workers, who were not in touch with it Sunday.
Aid workers said the refugees in Mugunga should have enough food for a week after they were allowed access to 900 tons of stocks because relief agencies feared that fighters would loot them. The camp also is believed to have up to a week’s worth of water, necessary to stave off an epidemic of disease.
What makes Mugunga worrisome is its mix of people. It includes a large contingent of members of the Hutu army and militias who led the genocide in 1994. Those Hutus have allegedly kept many refugees from returning to Rwanda by intimidating them.
Many of the extremist members of the Mugunga camp are believed to be fighting in Goma against the Zairian rebels and the Rwandan army. If it becomes clear that the Hutu militants are falling to the rebels and the Rwandan military, the extremists are likely to push westward, bringing other refugees with them to regions that are now out of the reach of aid groups.
But at least for Sunday, aid workers said, things appeared to be calm in Mugunga. “If there was fighting today, you’d be able to hear it from here,” Campbell said in Gisenyi.
On Saturday, Campbell said her last report was that tens of thousands of refugees from one of the camps that emptied out last week were slogging westward. “I’m hearing that dehydration is becoming a serious problem,” Campbell said. “The phrase I’m hearing is, ‘the body count is growing.’ “
Relief officials also were concerned that some refugees reportedly were heading for the town of Masisi, where Hutu extremists joined the Zairian army to kick thousands of Zairian Tutsis from their homes over the past year.
The officials fear that a movement into Masisi by Hutu refugees could spark a fresh round of violence in this conflict.
Officials of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees agency repeatedly have expressed concern about the whereabouts of refugees who have headed west. The officials believe that at least 600,000 refugees have moved farther into Zaire since fighting around the camps began. U.N. officials say they are considering using satellite technology to track them down.