More Angolan refugees enter Zambia

Over 500 new Angolan refugees have crossed into Zambia within the last week, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN on Monday. Kelvin Shimo from UNHCR in Lusaka told IRIN that in the last week 565 new Angolan refugees had entered Zambia’s Northwestern Province. He said that the refugees had come from the Cazombo area in southern Angola. Shimo added that most had crossed into the Zambezi district, but some had also entered into the Chavuma and Mwinilunga districts. “They are coming in tired and weak because of the long distances that they are having to walk,” Shimo said. “We are feeding and housing them and taking care of their basic medical needs.” According to the latest figures from UNHCR, Zambia currently hosts a total of 224,472 refugees. Last week a senior UNHCR official said that Zambia faced a growing refugee crisis because of the conflicts in neighbouring Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ilunga Ngandu, the UNHCR Regional Director for Operations in Southern Africa said at a media briefing in Lusaka that because of donor “aloofness”, UNHCR was being forced to plan a cutback in supplies to refugees in Zambia who were currently already lacking one food commodity out of four.