Hutu Refugees’ Trek Halted By Congo River

After a walk of over 300 miles, pursued by this country’s Tutsi-led rebels through some of Africa’s thickest jungles, terrorized and uprooted each time they set up camp, over 100,000 desperate Hutu have come to gather here.

The only answer many of the Hutu here see for themselves is to beg for international protection or keep pushing ever westward. But the refugees current position makes that second option extremely perilous.

The Zaire government has forbidden the use of a ferry to carry the Hutu across the Congo River. And even if it were to approve, officials of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees estimated that it would take 100 days to get all of the people across.