In November this year, the Sudan Human Rights Association carried out a field assessment tour of the refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The camps visited included Biringi, Langa, Singi and Obgokolo. Also visited were the displaced refugees in Ariwara market center. The findings:

During SHRA’s visit in August last year (1998), about 50,000 refugees were at the brink of starvation due to failures in agricultural subsistence and insecurity in the area. The findings of this year reveal that the refugees are scattered all over due to insecurity in the area.

Mr. Julius Mawa, the chairman for the refugees’ welfare informed SHRA that the camps which used to hold up to 15,000 refugees now hold between 4000-5000 refugees.

Many refugees have left the camps for Uganda and Sudan due to insecurity and famine. Between 1993-94 the inflow of the Sudanese refugees into the Democratic Republic of Congo was at its climax. This is when there would be as many as 90,000 refugees in camps but have now scattered.

Those who have remained are the less abled who can not easily go anywhere. They were last issued with relief food and other items in 1994.

This situation has forced women and children into the forests and shrubs to look for edible leaves and roots of plants. One Nadi Florence, a widow surviving with 5 children testified to SHRA that she is completely fed up of traveling to the forests. The forests are far away, risky and very dangerous.

Most of her friends have been attacked and raped by unknown men. But there is no way out because if she stops going to the forests there will be no food and they cannot afford to starve.

The men, on the other hand, spend most of the time traveling to do gardening work for the indigenous people of the land in exchange for food for their families. The situation of the aged, sick, widows, orphans and the disabled has increasingly become bad as they do not have the ability to fend for themselves.

About 222 families that have been living as displaced persons in Ariwara since March 1997, have also led a life full of suffering. From the time of their arrival, they had not received any assistance.

In November 1998, SHRA brought the matter to the attention of the UNHCR who decided that for ease in accessing assistance it was advisable to settle them in camps. But when they were taken to Biringi they spent the first 3-4 months without any assistance being extended.

According to the chairman of the refugees from Ariwara, Mr. Ibrahim Isa, some of these people could not stay in the camps for long and had to move on and start some small businesses. They were however, tracked down from the market places by the authorities and forcibly thrown onto UNHCR trucks. Their small businesses and settlements in Ariwara were demolished.

The new arrivals in Biringi from Ariwara told SHRA that, they had received food that lasted for two months. They have no shelter, and are currently living in remnants of huts vacated by refugees who had lived in the area earlier.

The area signifies terror, the soils are very unproductive and there is a count of about 150 graves probably of those who had died in the area.

Mr. Ibrahim was of the view that confining the refugees in the camp was destroying them further. The political instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a cause for insecurity in the camps. The refugees are targets as they have no protection of any kind. In August this year 10 refugees were killed from the settlement camps of Rudu (I) and Rudu (II) in Aba.

Mr. John Moki, 38, an evangelist in the refugee camp explained that this is the prime reason for deserting the camps. The insecurity can not allow the refugees to settle down and cultivate the land to produce their own food.

The camps are poorly equipped with medical services. Refugees have to travel long distances to the health units. The units lack drugs, medical personnel and transport. Being a forest environment tsetse flies and mosquitoes make sleeping sickness and malaria very rampant.

Mr. Elikana Araba, 51, a refugee elder in Biringi, said that sicknesses have claimed many refugee families in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Among the sicknesses, polio has also been very much outstanding because few people manage to cross to Arua for immunization due to the bad roads and insecurity.

Educational prospects for refugees in these camps are non- existent. The existing schools are located far away from the settlement camps and are poorly equipped.

In most cases pupils and students have been enrolled to teach their fellow pupils. The schools lack buildings, scholastic materials, textbooks and furniture. During rainy seasons the schools close.

The Sudan Human Rights Association appeals to humanitarian agencies to deal more appropriately with the worsening plight of the refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The situation of political instability which has disrupted refugee livelihoods in the Democratic Republic of Congo calls for emergency relief and sustainable development to the distressed refugee communities.

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Situation of Human Rights in Sudan Remains Seriously Wanting

Situation of Refugees in D.R. Congo

New Wave of Refugee Influx in Uganda

10 years of the Convention of the Rights of the Child

Refugees Testify Experiences

Overview of SHRA's work, 1999 / SHRA Calendar of Events 2000