Angolan refugee update

UNHCR has assessed the total number of Angolan refugees at Kalabo, in Zambia's Western Province, at 2,711 following a re-registration exercise. UNCHR said in its latest situation report that the figure included refugees that arrived between the end of January and 7 February in the remote settlement on the western banks of the Zambezi river.

UNHCR said food stocks at Kalabo were "adequate" for both the current caseload and a potential new influx. It said a Zambian ministry of health team, sponsored by UNICEF, had embarked on an immunisation campaign against polio, measles and meningitis among children in the camp. At the end of January, 2,292 refugees were flown out of Kalabo in a combined UN agency
operation to Mongu, and then trucked to a long-established Angolan refugee settlement at Mayukwayukwa. With their departure, "the humanitarian situation in Kalabo has improved significantly," the report said.

There are now some 10,500 refugees at Mayukwayukwa, with more than 6,500 new arrivals since October last year. UNHCR said that the malnutrition rate for the under-five age group among new arrivals to Mayukwayukwa "was reported at an alarming rate of 65 percent" and therapeutic feeding programmes have been initiated. UNHCR added that "logistical difficulties" continued to make
access to the camp difficult with the last 7 km of the road being "barely passable and the bridge across the Luena river considered unsafe for heavy trucks."