Geneva - Some 4 000 people have fled fighting in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the past five days and crossed the border into South Sudan, the UN's refugee agency said Tuesday.
The fighting near the village of Agorobo, which spurred the mass-flight, was unrelated to the lingering rebellion near the eastern city of Goma, hundreds of miles to the south, according to UNHCR spokeswoman Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba.
"It's a new situation. It's very hazy," she told AFP.
The new refugees in South Sudan had begun fleeing on December 13 and were being looked after by the UNHCR at a site near the border, she said, stressing that the camp could only serve as a temporary refuge since it was in a mined area.
Most of the refugees were women and children, who told aid workers they had fled from fighting between the military and rebels, the UNHCR said, stressing it did not know who the rebels were.
"There have always been a lot of militias in this area," Lejeune-Kaba said.
"Earlier there was the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army)," she said, adding that "this time, I have not heard that it is the LRA," a ruthless rebel group initially based in northern Uganda that has spread to neighbouring countries and is known for its widespread use of child soldiers.
The UNHCR had otherwise recently seen a "multiplying of rebel attacks" across all of DR Congo, she said.
The UN mission in the country, MONUSCO, had meanwhile detected the presences of the M23 rebels in and around Goma, the capital of the restive eastern region of North Kivu, the UN said Monday.
The M23 rebels, who launched a rebellion in eastern DR Congo in April and seized Goma last month, were supposed to have withdrawn completely as part of a ceasefire brokered by East African nations.
The UNHCR also decried Tuesday that "unidentified armed men" were present even inside the Mugunga 3 camp and other sites near Goma hosting people displaced by recent fighting.
This "is a threat to the civilian character of the camps," the agency cautioned, stressing it also exposes the vulnerable, displaced people staying there "to risks of violence." - Sapa-AFP
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