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Congo-Kinshasa: Thousands of Congolese Fleeing into Zambia to Escape Violence
[All Africa] The U.N. refugee agency reports the number of refugees that have fled into Zambia to escape militia violence in Haut-Katanga and Tanganyika Provinces of Democratic Republic of the Congo...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... now has topped 12,000. The agency reports more than 8,400 Congolese refugees have arrived in Zambia in just the last three months, indicating a worsening of the situation in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Government forces reportedly are killing many civilians in response to the rebellion in Haut-Katanga and Tanganyika Provinces against the continued rule of the country’s President, Joseph Kabila. To put the increasing instability in the country in perspective, UNHCR front man, Babar Baloch, notes more than four million people are internally displaced in DRC. He told VOA within the past month alone, 200,000 more people have fled their homes. "When you do the math, the rough total of internal displacement comes to around 6,500 people being displaced each day. Refugees who are arriving, they fear that as violence is intensifying, they fear that more people could be forced out from DRC into Zambia," said the front man. Baloch said some 80 percent of the refugees are women and kiddies, driven out by the extreme brutality of rampaging militias. He said civilians reportedly are being killed, women raped, property looted and houses torched. Posted by: Fred 2017-12-05 |
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