Congo: More Refugees Flee Ethnic Violence

The UN refugee agency has reported mass flight by refugees escaping ethnic violence in the north-western part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to neighbouring countries.

UNHCR said over 120,000 refugees have crossed the River Oubangui from the Equateur Province to the Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic. The refugees are fleeing clashes that have gone on since last October between the Enyele and Munzaya tribes over farming and fishing rights.

The UN Security Council recently renewed the mandate of the Congo peacekeeping mission (MONUC) that has been monitoring the peace processes in the volatile country, which in 2006 emerged from a civil war that had claimed over 5.4 million lives. [ER]