Rwandan refugees trek along Kisangani road

[Reuter / Christian Jennings]

BUTEMBO, Zaire, Dec 6 (Reuter) - More than 100,000 Rwandan
refugees, hungry and weakened by malaria, are trekking northwest
through eastern Zaire in a column many kilometres (miles) long,
an aid agency said on Friday.
``There are now more than 100,000 at Walikale and the column
extends 300 km (180 miles),'' said Nicholas Louis of the medical
charity Medecins sans Frontieres by telephone from the city of
Kisangani in northeast Zaire.
At one stage the refugees had been flowing into Walikale,
100 km (60 miles) west of the Rwandan border, at a rate of 20 a
second. ``It was like a tidal wave and they are still pouring
in, thousands upon thousands,'' said Louis, who is in radio
contact with towns in the area.
He said that by Thursday morning a vanguard of about 1,500
refugees had staggered into the town of Lubutu, 180 km (110
miles) further west from Walikale, on the road to Kisangani.
``Many of them are very weak and they are dying on the road
...The biggest cause of death is malaria,'' said Louis, adding
that the refugees were clearly some of those who went missing in
eastern Zaire after rebels seized control of the area from the
Zairean army in October.
Refugee camps containing 1.2 million people then broke up
and more than 500,000 Rwandans went home. But foreign
reconnaissance flights managed to locate only a fraction of the
remaining hundreds of thousands.
A small multinational force has gathered in the east African
state of Uganda with a mission to find and help the refugees but
political obstacles have prevented it deploying.
On Thursday, Defence Minister Doug Young of Canada, the main
contributing nation, said the force probably would not have to
make food airdrops or intervene militarily in any major way.
``It doesn't look as though they (airdrops) are going to be
required in any significant way because the NGOs
(non-governmental organisations) are in that area on the border
between Zaire and Rwanda,'' Young told reporters.
``I think all of us around the world are going to have to
focus on how we provide humanitarian aid but I don't think at
this stage it will require any major military intervention,'' he
said after the cabinet considered the Zaire situation.
But Louis said the refugees were in dire need of assistance,
especially food to help them on their way.
``All the villages along the road have been looted by the
retreating army...There is absolutely nothing for them in the
way of food. Everything has been looted or destroyed,'' he said.
``Those who reached Lubutu just sat on the ground. They
could not move any more,'' he added.
Other residents of Kisangani, contacted by telephone on
Friday, said the rebels had never taken either Walikale or the
town of Kindu to the west, contrary to rebel claims this week.
Independent sources have confirmed that the rebels, known as
the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of
Congo-Zaire, control a string of towns over a front stretching
550 km (340 miles) parallel to Zaire's eastern border.
Commander Jean Kabongo, security adviser to rebel leader
Laurent Kabila, said this week that rebel forces had surrounded
Kisangani, the biggest city in the region.
Residents of Kisangani, contacted by telephone, said the
city was firmly in government hands and the Zairean authorities
had made a great effort to secure the city against unruly troops
returning defeated from the front.
``There is a curfew at night and it is safer now than it was
10 days ago,'' one of the residents said.
Travellers crossing into western Uganda on Thursday said
that the rebels were now advancing towards the northeastern
towns of Watsa and Isiro, with Kisangani their next target.
In the Zairean capital Kinshasa worried officials said
demoralised soldiers were helping the cause of the rebels,
backed by Rwanda, by alienating the local population.
``The rebels announce they are coming days in advance. The
soldiers loot the town and disappear, hardly putting up
resistance,'' said a senior government official.
Given the utter failure of the army in the war that began in
October, some government officials privately see negotiations
with guerrillas as the Zairean government's only way out.
President Mobutu Sese Seko has been absent from Zaire
thoughout the conflict, recuperating in Europe after cancer
treatment.