Some 180,000 civilians have fled the fighting between renegade soldiers and army loyalists in eastern Congo in recent days, a human rights group said Tuesday, warning the exodus could be the start of a humanitarian disaster. Human Rights Watch said many of the civilians are hiding in eastern Congo's deep forests where they can't be reached by aid groups that have been forced by the fighting to scale back their operations. The United Nations on Sunday said 100,000 civilians had fled the fighting. Human Right Watch said that number has now swelled to 180,000. Citing an unnamed U.N. humanitarian worker, the group said the exodus stands as the worst single incident of mass flight since Congo's 1998-2002 war. An estimated 3 million people died in the six-nation conflict, most from war-induced disease and hunger. "Forcing civilians to flee into the forest has been one of the worst killers in the Congo wars," Alison Des Forges of the New York-based group said in a statement.
| Don't worry about it. They're just natives. They don't feel pain like we do. Just ask Kofi. |
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