GENEVA, Switzerland, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The U.N. refugee agency is calling on authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure the safety of Congolese nationals returning from Burundi.
A U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman said Tuesday a group of 366 Congolese -- including some 230 women and children -- who had been sheltering in Burundi's border area since fighting broke out around their homes in June chose to cross back into the DRC last Friday.
Jennifer Pagonis said the refugees previously declined the Geneva-based U.N. agency's offer to relocate them to a new camp further away from the border in Burundi. The group, made up exclusively of Banyamulenge, Congolese of Tutsi origin, was initially stopped at the DRC border and told to return to Burundi, which they refused to do.
"The refugees were forced to spend two nights at the border, with no proper shelter [and] UNHCR does not have access to the border area, either in Burundi or DRC," Pagonis told reporters in Geneva, noting military observers from the U.N. Mission in the DRC were deployed to monitor the refugees' situation.
