Aid Workers Leave City as Zairian Rebels Near
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KINSHASA, Zaire — Foreign aid workers abandoned Zaire’s third-largest city of Kisangani on Saturday, anticipating an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees fearing an attack by approaching rebels.
The aid workers’ departure leaves about 170,000 refugees without the daily food distributions that have sustained them since December at the Tingi-Tingi camp, 150 miles southeast of Kisangani.
The rebels took up arms after the government tried to expel ethnic Tutsis from eastern Zaire. Rebel leader Laurent Kabila accuses the government of arming Rwandan Hutu soldiers and militiamen among the refugees.
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