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DRC Refugees Flooding Into Uganda to Escape Armed Conflict

Halima Athumani

   SEBAGORO LANDING SITE, UGANDA - Aid workers in Uganda say armed
   conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has doubled the flow
   of refugees in past weeks, straining humanitarian funding. Many DRC
   refugees brave cold nights and risk big waves on Lake Albert to reach
   the Ugandan border.

   In the pitch-black hours of the early morning, a boatload of refugees
   from the DRC arrives on Uganda's side of Lake Albert. Some of the
   babies are hysterical.

   Aid workers say the number of Congolese refugees fleeing armed conflict
   to Uganda has more than doubled since June to about 300 per day.

   Refugee Gipato Margaret says there has been intensive fighting in the
   last two weeks in the DRC town of Chomya.

   "There are so many soldiers, yet the enemy rebel groups are in the
   surrounding forests. If they find a person in the garden, they kill
   you. They completely finish you. And when they see government soldiers,
   they follow and kill and fight them. We saw it was too much, there is a
   lot of gunshots nearby and staying there got difficult. So, we had to
   find a way out," Margaret said.

   Refugee Joshua Oshaki lost contact with his wife during fighting in the
   DRC's Ituri region but managed to escape with his two children.
   "We got here in the night. We moved with children and other people. We
   moved in the cold, the children are suffering, we are hungry till now.
   And so many things got lost, clothes, money and property. We do not
   have peace in Congo," Oshaki said.

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