Citation
NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuter) - Four thousand refugees from strife-torn
Rwanda have poured into neighbouring Tanzania, the first of what could
be eventually up to 150,000 refugees, a New York-based relief
organisation said Friday.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said its staff in Tanzania
reported the influx of refugees was expected in Ngara, a Tanzanian town
near the southeastern corner of Rwanda.
A flood of refugees could be housed in the Ngara area, where there are
six refugee camps, three of which could be re-opened after being shut
last year, Faye Richardson, the IRC regional director for Africa, told
Reuters.
If huge numbers of refugees cross into Tanzania UNHCR (U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees) would be able to locate them at all six
sites if necessary,
Richardson said.
An IRC officer sent a faxed message from Tanzania reporting: There is
great concern of a new influx of refugees from Rwanda to the Ngara
region ... The estimate for possible influx is 150,000 refugees.
In Geneva, a UNHCR spokesman said about 5,000 Rwandans and Burundis had
fled their countries for Zaire since their presidents were killed
Wednesday in a rocket attack on their plane, sparking a round of tribal
bloodletting and renewed civil war.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
