GOAL, the Irish aid agency, is to move its personnel from Goma this weekend because of fears for their safety. Goal's director. Mr John O Shea, said yesterday that the situation was becoming increasingly unstable.
Goal workers have been operating in the Kibumba camp for less than two years, live Goal workers were still at the camp, from an original figure of 63. Initially they were involved in burying the 140,000 people who died from cholera and more recently in health care and fostering.
Last week, Mr O'Shea said, six people were killed in an attack on a local Zairean army.
"These are the people who were supposed to be protecting us and they were killed in a military style attack. The situation is very sensitive and since we have people working on both sides of the border I have to be careful what I say. However, there are people who simply want to destabilise the situation," he said.
A few weeks ago 30 local people died when the truck they were travelling in went over a land mine on the road outside the camp where 170,000 people are still living.
The situation will probably worsen. In our 19 years of existence we have never had a fatality so we want to keep it that way, said Mr O'Shea. The agency will continue to work in Bukavu, a camp on the of other side of Lake Kivu which is also in Zaire.
It is now up to the UN High Commission for Refugees to assist the refugees, said Mr O'Shea. He said after two years people were still living in a "cesspool" at the camp, the majority too frightened to return to Rwanda.