28/08/13 UN News Center: UN agency assists newly displaced Congolese as fighting escalates in eastern provinces

UNHCR spokesperson Adrian
Edwards said the asylum seekers were being temporarily hosted at the Cishemere
Transit Centre, in Burundi’s
western province
of Cibitoke.

“Many who were hosted by Burundian families in
the commune of Buganda had
been moved to the transit centre where they could be better assisted,” Mr.
Edwards said, adding that so far UNHCR has transferred 174 people to the Kavumu
camp in the eastern province
of Cankuzo, and some 341
others were on their way there.

Mr. Edwards said UNHCR was
deeply concerned over the impact of attacks on civilians, particularly
indiscriminate attacks in the eastern part of the country.

Last weekend, fighting
between the Congolese Army (FARDC) and the M23 rebel group around Goma, the
capital of North Kivu, killed and wounded a
number of civilians.

At least three people were
killed and five others wounded on Saturday morning when a shell landed in
Ndosho, a suburb of Goma. On the same day, another shell fell near the Mugunga
3 camp, home to more than 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Two days
before, numerous shells landed in residential areas of Goma, killing at least
four people and wounding 15 – all civilians.

UNHCR reminded all parties
to the conflict that indiscriminate or deliberate attacks against civilians are
war crimes, and called for all parties to stop targeting them.