The repatriation of Congolese refugees, who had fled to Zambia from civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the 1990s, resumed on 22 November, according to a UN refugee agency official.

More than 400 Congolese refugees left Kala camp in Zambia, some 45km from the DRC-Zambia border, for Mpulungu Harbour on the southern edge of Lake Tanganyika, in Zambia's Northern Province, from where they would cross the lake by ship to Moba town in DRC's Katanga Province, said UNHCR spokesman Kelvin Shimoh.

Voluntary repatriation to Katanga was suspended after ethnic tension arose in Moba in August. "The political and security situation in Moba has improved now and the situation is calm," said Shimoh.

The UNHRC and its partners - the Zambian and DRC governments, the International Organisation for Migration, the World Food Programme, and the implementing partners in Mwange camp in Mporokoso, northern Zambia, and Kala camp - intend to move three convoys, each with about 4,000 refugees, to Moba during the course of November.

"Three more convoys are planned in December for Moba, which will mark the conclusion of the repatriation season for 2007, as the roads from the camps in Zambia and in Moba area become impassable owing to the rainy season," Shimoh said.

James Lynch, UNHCR country representative in Zambia, said, "This development will definitely allow more Congolese refugees, especially those wishing to go to Moba, to return home and help in the reconstruction of their country."

The Congolese initially planned to repatriate 20,000 persons in 2007, but this has now been revised to 12,000 persons. Zambia currently hosts 114,805 refugees, of whom 57,322 were listed as Congolese at the end of October 2007.

Since the commencement of the operation in May 2007, a total of 5,621 Congolese refugees have been repatriated from Mwange and Kala camps to the Katanga Province towns of Pweto, Moba, Kalemie and Lubumbashi.

Refugees started fleeing the DRC in 1996 when Congolese forces led by Laurent Kabila, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, succeeded in toppling DRC president Mobutu Sese Seko the following year. Kabila then fell out with his erstwhile allies, who backed rival rebel groups that tried to oust him, starting a second round of conflicts.

Fighting increased in ferocity, extending to seven African countries and threatening to plunge the region into what has been dubbed 'Africa's world war'. Kabila was shot dead on 16 January 2001 by one of his palace guards. His son, Joseph, took power, but the fighting continued.

Despite peace accords signed in 2002, and elections won last years by Joseph Kabila, eastern DRC remains unstable, and the UN's largest peacekeeping mission is currently deployed in the country.