WHERE IS MBEKI just when one needs a Mbeki to Mediate??
Matek
130,000 Displaced Around Beni, Lubero
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
January 2, 2003
Posted to the web January 2, 2003
Kinshasa
At least 130,000 people had been displaced around the towns of Beni and
Lubero, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations
Mission in the DRC (known as MONUC) said on Thursday.
It said 23,000 internally displaced people had come from Oicha (30 km north
of Beni), 40,800 from Mangina (30 km northwest of Beni) and the remainder
from Rengeti and other neighbouring locations, MONUC announced on Radio Okapi.
The Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de
liberation (RCD-K-ML) had accused the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo
(MLC) of attacking its positions in Rengeti on Wednesday, RCD-K-ML
Secretary-General Kolosso Sumahili told IRIN. "According to the report that
we have, it is a humanitarian catastrophe," he added.
Meanwhile, MLC has accused RCD-K-ML of attacking its ally, RCD-National
(RCD-N).
"There are still some clashes, but we do not think that it is a proper attack
or a continuation of fighting," Mounoubayi Madnodge, the MONUC spokesman,
said. "We think that these clashes are due to communication problems between
the commanders of the military movements and the groups themselves. We don't
think that these clashes have compromised either the ceasefire agreement or
the deployment of MONUC in the region."
Throughout Thursday Beni remained calm. The coordinator with the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Beni, Alexandre Gashangi,
said on Radio Okapi that a humanitarian intervention would begin with an
explanation over the airwaves of its purpose. "Our explanations are
addressing both the military and civilian populations," he said.
The leaders of the three rival militias fighting along the Isiro-Beni axis of
northeastern DRC signed a ceasefire agreement on Monday.
