The Congolese government launched Saturday, April 11, the awareness campaign and biometric registration of Rwandan refugees in Lubumbashi (Katanga), IGIHE has learnt

Conducted by the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the recording operation targets more than 245 000 Rwandan refugees living in the DRC, 80% in North Kivu.

According to the agency of the UN, refugees affected by the operation are those who fled Rwanda in 1994 after the fall of the Habyarimana regime.

The Deputy Prime Minister of DRC is confident that this operation will help to find solutions to the multiple problems faced by Rwandan refugees living in the DRC.

DRC Government says operation aims to know the number of Rwandan refugees living in the DRC.

It also stressed that it wants to provide them with reliable documentation in order to avoid cases of recycling related to illegal Returns and prevent of stateless situation in the Great Lakes region.

This recording operation will last one month and it is launched one month after the one that was conducted in other areas of Katanga namely: Kalemie Kabalo, Nyunzu, Manono and Kongolo.In these five territories of North Katanga, Rwandan nationals families had already been identified and pre-recorded by the National Commission for Refugees (CNR) with support from the High Commission of the United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR) between September 2013 and January 2014.