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August 2, 2023 French

Hier soir [17 juillet] plusieurs centaines de personnes ont été tuées ou blessées par des tirs d'obus de mortier du Front patriotique rwandais

Card Number 30439

Number
30439
Author
Narcy, Jean-Claude
Author
Marque, Isabelle
Date
18 juillet 1994
Ymd
19940718
Time
20:00:00
Time zone
CEST
Uptitle
Journal de 20 heures
Title
Hier soir [17 juillet] plusieurs centaines de personnes ont été tuées ou blessées par des tirs d'obus de mortier du Front patriotique rwandais
Subtitle
En provoquant la fermeture de la frontière, la chute de Gisenyi a interrompu le flot des réfugiés rwandais.
Size
21174 bytes
Pages nb.
2
Source
TF1
Public records
INA
Type
Transcription d'une émission de télévision
Language
FR
Abstract
- Since this morning 100,000 new refugees have come to swell the camps on the Zaire border. And last night several hundred people were killed or injured by mortar shell fire from the Rwandan Patriotic Front guerrillas. Witnesses helplessly witnessed scenes of indescribable panic.
- This morning, the capture of Gisenyi is no longer in doubt. Despite sporadic fire, the battle is over and the border closed. The only vestiges of the fighting are the weapons that the last Rwandan soldiers who crossed into Zaire since yesterday [July 17] have returned to the authorities.
- But the bodies of the victims are still there to bear witness to yesterday's [July 17] tragedy: the shells hit them when they had just arrived in Zaire. The explosions, the panic killed at least 60 people, mostly women and children.
- We hardly see any more wounded: the French army, the Red Cross passed by there in the morning. Between these wounded from the border and those from the airport, also victims of indiscriminate shells, the doctors of the French branch have not known a respite. Once healed, they will be handed over to humanitarian associations responsible for organizing the exodus of refugees to Zaire.
- By causing the border to be closed, the fall of Gisenyi interrupted the flow of Rwandan refugees. But there are already several hundred thousand, perhaps even a million people on the road to Zaire who are waiting for international aid in a country which does not have the means to welcome them.
- The Rwandan Patriotic Front said in the afternoon that it did not intend to attack French troops in the security region it controls. The RPF also announces that a new Rwandan government will be sworn in tomorrow [July 19] in Kigali. Finally, the RPF chief of staff announced this evening that the war was over.