More Than 22,000 Congolese Flee Fighting

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More than 22,000 Congolese refugees fleeing fighting in eastern Congo have crossed into neighboring Burundi in the past week, a Burundian official said Wednesday.
The fighting in eastern Congo raised tribal tensions, and the refugees were being housed in separate camps to prevent violence, said Pierre Claver Batungwanayo, the mayor of Cibitoke, a border town.



"It is very difficult for us to handle this situation now, particularly with this situation of suspicion prevailing," Batungwanayo told The Associated Press in this small town, about 30 miles northwest of Bujumbura, the capital.

The fighting in Congo broke out earlier this month when Congolese Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a renegade ex-rebel commander, and fellow commander Col. Jules Mutebutsi turned on army higher-ups over what they claimed were atrocities against Congolese Tutsi, a minority known as the Banyamulenge.


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