After fighting between the Congolese government troops and members of the rebel militia M-23 in the province of North Kivu, about 5,000 people fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Uganda on Monday.
According to Ugandan government spokespersons, about 100 soldiers were among those fleeing. They are not injured because they fled without fighting to Uganda and surrendered there, a police spokesperson said.
The rebels had literally overrun the Congolese border town of Bunagana and taken control there, the head of the neighboring Ugandan district, Shafiq Sekandi, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).
There are no police, no customs, no immigration, trucks are stranded, he said, describing conditions in the town across the border. The army has just given up and gone over to Uganda, said Damien Sebusanane, head of a local organization in Bunagana, a major border crossing for goods and travel between Uganda and the DRC, about 490 kilometers (304 miles) from the Ugandan capital Kampala.
According to Sekandi, more than 30,000 people from the neighboring country have already been stranded on the Ugandan side of the border, sleeping in schools, churches, hospitals, but also in the open.
A spokesperson for the Red Cross in Uganda spoke of a tense situation in Bunagana on Monday. The humanitarian situation is worrying, warned Hervé Nsabimana of the local human rights organization Codhas.
Eastern DRC has been rocked by fighting between the army and various militias for years. The government in Kinshasa accuses neighbouring Rwanda of supporting the M-23 militia. Rwanda has denied this.
On Monday, Gen. Sylvain Ekenge, spokesperson for the military governor of North Kivu, accused Rwanda of trying to suffocate the provincial capital Goma with the occupation of Bunagana by the M-23. Goma is very close to the border with Rwanda.
