20110217
Xinhua
KINSHASA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Up to 98,678 Rwandese refugees have been repatriated from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to Rwanda since Aug. 1, 2007, authorities reported on Wednesday.

According to the North Kivu branch of the National Commission for Refugees (CNR), the majority of the returnees had taken shelter in Congolese forests for more than a decade.

They were then settled in a number of centers established by the CNR before voluntarily taken to their motherland.

Those centers were set up at Kimua in Walikale territory, Mweso Kibabi, Masisi, Nyanzale, Kalengera and Kiwanja in Rutshuru territory in the eastern province of North Kivu..

Last week, 138 Rwandese refugees of 64 families were repatriated to Rwanda.

Thousands of Rwandese nationals took refuge in DR Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

The CNR/North-Kivu began its activities in 1999 with the support from the provincial government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).