With the exception of the group of soldiers who accompanied the entourage of the former Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana that swiftly crossed the region between late 1996 and early 1997, the vast majority of Rwandan refugees did not arrive in Orientale Province until March 1997. Although they tried to reach Kisangani in the company of an extremely small number of ex-FAR/Interahamwe units via the Lubutu-Kisangani road, on the right bank of the Luluaba River (the Congo River),²⁶⁹ they were pushed back by the FAZ towards Ubundu, 100 kilometres south of Kisangani, on the left bank of the Luluaba River. From 6 March 1997, tens of thousands of refugees set up camp at Njale, in the Ubundu territory, on the right bank of the Zaire River, opposite the village of Ubundu. The fighting that ensued between the AFDL/APR troops and the ex-FAR/Interahamwe troops around Njale²⁷⁰ created a wave of panic among the refugees and many of them tried to cross the river any way they could, in spite of the harsh weather conditions. Several hundred refugees reportedly drowned as they tried to cross the river.

Attacks against refugees along the Lubutu-Kisangani road

Advancing faster than the others, a small group of approximately 1,000 refugees and ex-FAR/Interahamwe units managed to pass through before the closure of the Lubutu-Kisangani road and arrived on 12 March 1997 at the village of Wania Rukula, sixty-four kilometres from Kisangani. They settled in two makeshift camps between the towns of Luboya and Maiko, on the right bank of the Luluaba River. On the same day, FAZ soldiers from the Special Presidential Division (DSP) entered the camps and handed out weapons to the ex-FAR/Interahamwe in anticipation of an AFDL/APR attack.

• Around eight o’clock in the evening on 14 March 1997, after the defeat of the FAZ/ex-FAR/Interahamwe coalition, AFDL/APR soldiers allegedly killed at least 470 refugees in the two camps near Wanie Rukula, in the Ubundu territory. Most of the victims’ bodies were dumped in the Luboya River but some were placed in three mass graves.²⁷¹

Executions and forced disappearances of refugees in and around the town of Kisangani

After the capture of Kisangani on 15 March 1997, the AFDL/APR soldiers staged combing operations in and around the town, looking for refugees. The new AFDL authorities instructed local officials to round up all the refugees in the region. Whenever groups of refugees were spotted, the AFDL/APR soldiers went to the round-up sites and led the refugees away towards an unknown fate. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• Around 15 March 1997, AFDL/APR units forced the disappearance of around thirty refugees detained at the Prison Centrale in Kisangani. When they entered the prison, which had been abandoned by the Zairian security services, they sorted the prisoners according to their ethnic group. The Tutsis were freed and their repatriation to Rwanda arranged. The Hutus were taken outside the prison and their fate remains unknown to this day. Around twenty Hutu women and children were also led out of the prison under the pretext of being repatriated to Rwanda. However, their return has not been confirmed.²⁷²

• At the end of April 1997, AFDL/APR soldiers arrested a group of 11 refugees on the Kisangani-Lubutu road. The refugees were never seen again.²⁷³