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04/17/2006:

"More than 167,000 people displaced in DRCongo in five months: UN"

LUBUMBASHI, DRCongo (AFP) - More than 167,000 people have fled fighting between the army and militias in Katanga province in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo since mid-November, the UN has said, as violence continues ahead of this year's crucial elections.

"The number of displaced people continues to rise because several thousand of them, who had stayed hidden in the bush because they were afraid to take the roads, are starting to reach villages where aid is dispatched," said Alfred Gondo, head of the UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) for the centre of Katanga.

The wave of newly-displaced comes in addition to 121,000 others who had fled the war-torn region of the vast central African state in 2005 following continued unrest.
news.yahoo.com