wfn.org | Total of 8 killed in assault on LWF's Tutsi resettlement site

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

in Rwanda

GENEVA, March 13, 1998 - The number of people killed in an assault on a
resettlement site for returnee Tutsi refugees, run by the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), has risen to eight.

According to the latest report from the LWF World Service office in Kigali,
Rwanda, three LWF staff and five community members of Bukora 3 in the
prefecture of Kibungo, are among the dead. Another two community members
and one LWF staff member are injured and have been hospitalized. All the
victims are Tutsis.

According to eyewitness reports, the assailants, of which there were about
30, came during the night, March 11-12, armed with guns, machetes and hoes.
"They shouted that they would kill all these Tutsis here and started asking
for the names of some of the staff... The attackers had a list of our
staff's names," the report says. It appears that they came from the
Tanzanian border area, having crossed the Akagera river on the border in
small boats.

About 500 families are currently settled in Bukora 3 situated not far from
the Tanzanian border. A total of 15 LWF staff members worked at the site in
Bukora.

The LWF has been involved in humanitarian aid and shelter programs in
collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Action by
Churches Together (ACT) and European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO)
in the region since 1994. The resettlement project, Bukora 3, is funded by
ECHO with the LWF as implementing partner.

The Akagera river is a tributary of the Kagera river which in 1994 earned a
tragic reputation when the bodies of thousands of massacred Rwandans were
found and recovered there.

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The Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Office for Communication Services - Karin Achtelstetter, Assistant Editor
(German) - Janet Bond-Nash, Editorial Assistant (English),
Tel.: ++41 22/791 63 55 - Fax: ++41 22/798 86 16