KINSHASA, 14 February (IRIN) - At least US$62 million is required to repatriate 98,500 Congolese refugees and to provide aid for 1.1 million internally displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations.

In an appeal made on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said $47 million is needed to support the return and reintegration of 98,500 refugees living in neighbouring countries.

"At least $36 million [of the $47 million] will go to our programme in the DRC while the remainder [$11 million] will go to countries hosting Congolese refugees," Antonio Jose Canhandula, the assistant UNHCR representative for the DRC, said.

According to UNHCR, there are at least 400,000 Congolese refugees in the central African and Great Lakes region, mainly in Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The appeal also calls for $15 million to help more than one million displaced people. It is estimated that between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people are displaced in the DRC.

The 2006 general elections in the DRC paved the way for the repatriation of the refugees, Canhandula said, although security remains a problem for the displaced to return to their villages, particularly in the northeastern province of Orientale and the eastern part of the country.

In these two zones, armed groups opposed to government plans to integrate them into the national army are responsible for sporadic fighting, leading to continued displacement and harrasment.

"Our role is to call on all authorities responsible to protect the population and improve the security situation in the zones of return," he said. "If the security situation improves we will assist the government in returning the displaced people."

Thousands of Congolese refugees returned to the country during the 2003-2006 transition period, mainly to the northern, western and southern regions. However, only small numbers returned to the eastern areas.

According to Azarias Ruberwa, one of four former vice-presidents in the DRC's transition government and a former leader of the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie rebel movement, this was due to problems of co-existence between the different ethnic groups - especially between the Banayamulenge, Congolese of Rwandan origin, and the other groups.

"As long as this problem of co-existence has not been resolved, we will not find a solution," Ruberwa said, "Tens of thousands of displaced people will not agree to be repatriated."

ei/aw/js/mw

IRIN news