News of Rwanda (Kigali)

Rwanda: Rusizi - Rwandan Refugees in Congo Continue to Abandon Forests, Returning Home

Photo: Steve Terrill/RNW
Displaced people (file photo): At least 70,000 Rwandans are expected to return before the UN invokes the Cessation Clause on Rwandan refugees next June.

Many Rwandans who have been living as refugees in Congo forests are returning home in great numbers as 26 people with women majority returned on the 7th of September.

The later returned through Nyagatare refugee camp in Rusizi district where they pass temporarily before being relocated making the number to 326 returnees since the beginning of the month of august 2012.

The 26 returnees included 15 children, 7 women and 4 men who came from Mwenga, Karehe, Kasheshe and Shabunda areas and they were residents of former Cyangugu, Gisenyi and Kibuye provinces. The reason they decided to return back to their country is their social welfare which was worse and deteriorating, death and torture they were inflicted on by armed forces in DRC including one called Raia mutomboki and among the returnees two are said to be traumatized.

Alfred Safi Uwitonze the acting director of Nyagatare refugee camp said that there are signs that these returnees were living in worst conditions where some were wounded and others are suffering from malnutrition and kwashiorkor.

They said that they feel at home now that they are in Rwanda and for the hospitality they are given from other Rwandans and how they are treated before they are taken back to their home area which is far different from what they have been told about Rwanda.

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