KAMPALA—Ten thousand Congolese refugees have fled to neighbouring Uganda following clashes between the Congolese army and renegade troops in its eastern provinces, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
"The displaced said they were fleeing fighting between the government army and militia led by General Laurent Nkunda," the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement.
Congolese officials reported killing 28 soldiers loyal to Nkunda, a renegade army officer, in exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasting several hours on Monday.
Refugees often flee violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been a tinderbox for armed conflict since neighbours Rwanda and Uganda invaded in 1998, sparking a 5-year war that aid agencies say killed 3.8 million.
Many refugees return after a few days.
"With the prevailing insecurity in eastern DRC, such back and forth movements are likely to continue," UNHCR said, adding that it was organising shelter.
WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said the World Food Programme was ready to distribute 1 tonne of basic food supplies to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by helicopter. Road access to the region is currently impossible, and WFP food stocks there have decreased to low levels, she said.
She said the malnutrition rate in the region was currently at 17 percent, above the "crisis level" of 15 percent.
Separately, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva the U.N. agency was concerned that hundreds of thousands of people could be uprooted if fighting continues there.
"We fear that the pursuit of a military solution to the problems in North Kivu would further worsen the province's humanitarian crisis through the potential displacement of hundreds of thousands of additional Congolese civilians," he said. "We hope that the current problems in North Kivu can still be resolved through negotiations."
Redmond called on both sides of the conflict to refrain from attacks on civilians, and particularly on displaced people.
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