KAMPALA, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has sent back 2,500 Congolese staff and families who had temporarily been relocated to Uganda after intense fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Paulin Djomo, director of the UN Regional Service Center in Entebbe, about 40 km south of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, told Xinhua Thursday by telephone that the UN has been working with Uganda's foreign affairs ministry for the transit exit of its Congolese national staff back to Kinshasa, the DRC capital.

"We have already taken back to Kinshasa over 2,500 national staff and their dependents. Almost everybody (Congolese national staff) who has arrived has been repatriated back to Kinshasa," said Djomo. "I think right now (Thursday) in our transit camp we don't have (Congolese) national staff and their dependents. All we have are rotational military and police."

Non-essential international and national staff of the UN stabilization mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, were temporarily evacuated to Kampala late last month following the escalation of hostilities and capture of Goma, a city in eastern DRC, by the March 23 Movement rebels in DRC.

"When the situation normalizes in Goma and the management of the mission in Congo talking to security advisers and assessing the situation, if they believe that it is safe enough for them to return, then they will reorganize their return now from Kinshasa to Goma," said Djomo. Enditem

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