South Sudan refugees take 13 UN staff hostage

Unarmed refugees are seeking resettlement in a third country

Ahundred unarmed South Sudanese refugees in eastern Congo took 13 United Nations mission staff hostage yesterday, demanding to be moved to a third country, a UN official based in the area said.

They were among 530 people, mostly former fighters from the rebel side in South Sudan, who have been living in the Munigi base, just outside Goma, since fleeing South Sudan last August, UN Goma bureau head Daniel Ruiz told Reuters.

The United Nations estimates about 3 million South Sudanese have been uprooted by the violence in their country, the biggest cross-border exodus in Africa since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

No takers

Ruiz said the camp occupants had been demanding to be moved to a third country for months, but no one would take them. Congo’s government, mindful of threats to its stability from past refugee influxes, and from the armed groups that frequently roam its lawless east, is also keen to move them.