KIGALI At least 22,000 people who fled fighting in northwest Rwanda have returned home, a social worker in Gisenyi district told AFP on Thursday, warning that they are severely malnourished. He said villagers had left their homes with Hutu extremist rebels waging an insurgency in the region, but that most of those who left with the militias have come back. The Hutu rebels kill those who do not collaborate with them, taking with them their accomplices, explained the source, who requested anonymity, adding that the towns that emptied because of the lack of security ...

were Mutura, Rwerere, Kanama, Rubavu, Karago and Satinski. Now, some 12,000 have returned to Rwerere, more than 10,000 are in Mutura, and others are in Kanama, he said. The social worker warned however: These people are in a deplorable situation. Children and mothers are suffering from malnutrition, some are already dehydrated, and diseases like Malaria have reached the camps. On Wednesday, Rewere distributed 10 tons of food and medicine to returnees sheltering at a Catholic parish in Busasamana Commune, while the local authorities were hoping for national government aid for another 5,000 displaced people at the Bazilete Camp, also in Rwerere. Since last year, the Hutu insurgency in Rwanda has grown against the minority Tutsi government formed when Tutsis seized power from the country's Hutu leaders in 1994.

Gisenyi, Northern Ruhengeri and Central Gitarama districts have been the hardest hit by the insurgency. Many massacres have been attributed to Hutu rebels in the area since early 1997. In the latest massacre, 14 people including 11 children were killed at a school in Kivumu, 16 kilometers (10 miles) south of Gisenyi, on Monday. (AFP)