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Congo-Kinshasa: North Katanga - Situation Calm in Moba While Awaiting Refugees' Return
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United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Oscar Mercado
A delegation of MONUC visited Moba-300 km South of Kalemie-on 14 March 2008 and noted that the situation on the ground is calm despite a few tracts that were spread around last week in that city calling the people to demonstrate against MONUC that is accused of favoring the return of non-native populations to the region.
The delegation - composed of representatives of the Public Information, Civil Affairs, Political Affairs/Lubumbashi, Colonel André Djohoun, Commander of the Brigade of Katanga as well as three members of the civil society of Tanganyika - had talks with the local authorities, the Commander of the Beninese detachment and agencies of the UN system there.
After the different meetings, they all confirmed that the situation in Moba is calm and that no incident occurred after the circulation of the few tracts that called for a demonstration against MONUC under the pretext that MONUC favors the return of Banyamulenge who are not natives of that region. According to the tracts, a demonstration was planned for 15 March but did not take place.
The person in charge of the Beninese detachment informed that a delegation of local authorities, journalists, and members of the civil society visited the Beninese camp on 12 March and attested that there was no Banyamulenge returnee hidden in its facilities.
On his side, the new administrator of the territory, Mulobe Kalala, reassured the delegation of the population's attitude and indicated that joint patrols of MONUC/FARDC/PNC are regularly carried out since last week. He also minimized the impact of the tracts on the inhabitants, indicating that it is a few troublemakers who started this but have no support from the population.
The head of the UNHCR in Moba, Mr. Philippe Creppy, said that the UN agency continues, as planned, its repatriation program for refugees from Zambia and Tanzania, bound to resume on 2 May. About 20,000 refugees are expected to be repatriated to the territory of Moba in 2008.
Moba is one of the 6 territories of the district of Tanganyika. Depending essentially on economic activities based on farming, it has more than 400,000 inhabitants and 3 national deputies.
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MONUC has taken all the necessary steps to help protect civilian populations and the different international organizations that operate there, including the deployment of UNPOL based in Lubumbashi.
In addition, several missions of sensitization have been conducted in the last months and a new relay FM transmitter of Radio Okapi has been running since 9 March last.
As a reminder, on 1 August 2007, UN facilities and those of international organizations there were attacked and ransacked by criminals after rumors about the return of the Banyamulenge populations under the protection of the United Nations came out.
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| Copyright © 2008 United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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