17 KILLED IN REFUGEE ACCIDENT IN UGANDA

(Agenzia Fides) - 17 deaths, 30 seriously injured, another twenty slightly injured. This is the toll of a serious road accident in Uganda whose victims are Congolese refugees who fled from Kamango, in the territory of Beni (in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) because of the fighting between the regular army of Kinshasa and the Ugandan rebels of the ADF-NALU.
According to a note sent to Fides Agency by the Provincial Coordination of Civil Society of North Kivu, the accident occurred on August 26 on the main road Bubukwanga-Kyangwari in the Ugandan district of Bundibugyo. The bus was carrying 92 Congolese refugees that the Ugandan government had decided to move from Bubukwanga (town close to the border and close to Kamango) to Kyangwari, which is considered a safer place because it is far from the border.
Of the 92 persons transported by bus, only 21 were not injured, while the 30 seriously injured are in coma.
The coordination of the Civil Society of North Kivu has launched an appeal to the Congolese government in order to provide all necessary support to the injured and a proper burial for the victims.
According to UNICEF, more than 66,000 Congolese, 37,000 of whom are children, have fled to Uganda because of the violence of the ADF-NALU (Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda), a Ugandan rebel coalition that has laid its bases on the Congolese territory. In July, the town of Kamango was at the center of fighting between the rebels of the ADF-NALU and the Congolese army. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/08/2013)

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