Refugees flee to Namibia, Zambia

The number of Angolan refugees fleeing into Namibia has more than doubled since the beginning of the year because of increased fighting between government forces and UNITA rebels, a UNHCR official said. Mengeshe Kebede of UNHCR told IRIN on Tuesday that the number of people accommdated at the Osire refugee camp, situated about 200 km north of the Namibian capital, Windhoek, had doubled from 2,000 asylum seekers at the beginning of the year to some 4,000 by the end of September. “The number of Angolans entering Namibia has been increasing steadily since June, and in October alone about 260 asylum seekers entered Namibia, while 100 more have already been registered since the beginning of November,” Kebede said. Kebede said should the fighting in the eastern parts of Angola intensify, it was possible that the Angolan refugee population at Osire might reach the 5,000 mark. At the same time, UNHCR spokesman in Lusaka, Zambia, told IRIN that about 300 additional refugees, most of them Angolans, have entered Zambia over the last week. “There are about 40 refugees a day who enter the North Western Province of Zambia,” Dominik Bartsch told IRIN on Tuesday, adding that the Meheba refugee centre in the province now accommodates 32,000 refugees, of whom about 18,000 are Angolans. The movement of Angolans into neighbouring countries follows the Angolan government’s offensive against UNITA-held territories in the east and southern parts of the war-torn country. The Angolan armed forces have recently flushed out the rebels from their Bailundo and Andulo strongholds in the central highlands. Unconfirmed reports said government forces were now moving their offensive to the south of the country, which has long been a rebel stronghold.