National debate moderators named

The committee appointed by the government to organise the proposed national debate has announced that the moderators of the debate will be Emile Derlin Zinsou of the Francophonie organisation, Don Mateo of the Italy-based St. Egidio Community, and OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim, Congolese state television reported on Monday. The report gave neither a date nor a venue for the proposed inter-Congolese meeting, which had been earlier planned for June in Nairobi. 660,000 people displaced The total number of internally-displaced people (IDPs) in the DRC is now estimated at 660,000, the latest report from the Office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator said. The report, received by IRIN on Tuesday, said the provinces with the highest number of displaced persons were South Kivu and Katanga, with 220,000 and 150,000 IDPs, respectively. Meanwhile, the DRC was hosting some 285,360 refugees from neighbouring countries as of 15 June, the report said. The refugees included 145,860 Angolans, 20,000 Burundians, 61,000 Sudanese, 1,500 Ugandans, 25,000 Rwandans and 32,000 people from Congo-Brazzaville. There were an estimated 117,000 DRC refugees in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, the report added.