Chronology of border tension

Tension between Angola and Zambia has risen sharply this year. An Angolan government offensive against UNITA rebels in eastern Angola has sent 30,000 refugees fleeing across the border, while cross-border banditry allegedly committed by both UNITA and Angolan soldiers has also uprooted Zambian villagers from the frontier region. The following is a chronology of the main events in the border area since the beginning of 2000. JANUARY · Fighting near the UNITA stronghold of Jamba in southeastern Angola causes thousands of people to seek refugee across the border in Zambia. In early January humanitarian agencies report that over 7,000 refugees had arrived at Sinjembela, at the southwest tip of Zambia. More refugees cross further north at Kalabo. They are, however, stranded on the western bank of the Zambezi river due to heavy rains. · Concern is expressed by aid workers that UNITA rebels may have slipped in among the refugees to escape the government offensive. Lusaka turns down an Angolan request to allow its forces to cross into Zambia to pursue the rebels. · The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, visits the refugees at Kalabo. Her arrival coincides with the start of a seven-day UNHCR/WFP airlift of 2,300 people from Kalabo further inland to Mongu, where they are transported by road to a long-established refugee camp at Mayukwayukwa. Food is also positioned for the remaining 2,500 refugees at Kalabo. However, the rescue of the refugees at Sinjembela cannot be conducted due to the lack of an airstrip, but food and medical supplies are delivered. FEBRUARY · Zambian Defence Minister Chitalu Sampa visits Luanda to attend an Angola-Zambia Joint Permanent Defence and Security Commission meeting. He reiterates Zambia’s refusal to allow Angolan troops (FAA) entry into Zambia. “We have remained neutral in the Angolan conflict, and we remain so,” he says on his return to Lusaka. · An estimated 10,000 to 17,000 Angolan refugees are scattered across a 160 km-wide front from Imusho in the south, at the corner of the Namibian-Angolan border, to Shangombo further north. The bulk are concentrated at Sinjembela. They are perceived as sympathetic to UNITA, and their removal from the border is considered essential by humanitarian agencies fearing recruitment among them by the rebels and retaliation by the FAA. UNHCR struggles to overcome logistical and terrain difficulties to transport them further inland. MARCH · About 9,000 Zambian villagers are forced to flee their homes on the western border following attacks by suspected UNITA rebels. UNICEF says the villagers are from the Chavuma area and have had their cattle and household items looted. Zambian troops are deployed to the border. · The last group of refugees stuck at Sinjembela are moved 120 km to a new camp at Nangweshi with the help of amphibious trucks from the Zambian army. Some 9,000 Angolans are sheltered at the new camp. · Many of the displaced Zambian villagers return to their homes from Chavuma central after the army manages to improve security on the border. · The Angolan government says its armed forces have temporarily halted operations against UNITA and are reorganising after crippling the rebel movement’s conventional military capabilities. APRIL · Angola’s Chief-of-Staff General Joao de Matos sets up his “forward command post” in the eastern province of Moxico. News reports say the FAA is planning a new offensive against UNITA to capture the bases of Cazombo and Lumbala N’guimbo close to the Zambian border. · About 400 Angolan refugees cross into Zambia in the first two weeks of April. They are mainly from the UNITA-held Cazombo area. Tension along the common border increases and Zambian troop reinforcements are sent to patrol the area. · Humanitarian agencies warn of increasing insecurity amid continuing raids on Zambian villages by unknown Angolan gunmen. Sources tell IRIN that although the identity of the attackers is unknown, there is increasing evidence that the Angolan army is responsible for at least some of the raids. “What we don’t know is whether it is politically motivated or foraging by isolated units,” one observer comments. Fresh displaced flee to Chavuma central. “The situation has deteriorated since mid-April and the numbers of the displaced are again rising,” an aid worker says. MAY · On 10 May Zambian Defence Minister Chitalu Sampa accuses the Angolan military of cross-border air and ground attacks in Zambia’s Western and Northwestern provinces. He says that a Zambian soldier was killed, and incendiary bombs were dropped on a Zambian village in April. Sampa charges that the military incursions are accompanied by “banditry, looting, abductions, thefts of food and livestock, loss of lives and property”. · Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda says he is “flabbergasted” by the allegations and calls for the convening of the Angola-Zambia Joint Permanent Defence and Security Commission. · Humanitarian agencies say they are assisting 9,100 displaced Zambians fleeing border insecurity. “The number of IDPs is increasing, the Angolan incursions are growing more frequent and it is very difficult for us to deal with this situation,” a UNICEF spokesman tells IRIN. Most of the IDPs are originally from Nguvu and Chinyama-Litapi. They were sheltering in Chavuma, Nyambe, Mize, Chinyama-Litapa, Lumgeveengu island, Nguvu and Jimbe. JUNE · Zambian and Angolan security officials meet in Lusaka at the end of June to discuss the border situation. The Angolan official media repeats Luanda’s long-standing accusations that Zambia is assisting UNITA, but a Zambian military source tells IRIN that the issue was not raised at the meetings. “The situation has eased. There are still some pockets of suspicion but it’s not as tense as it was a few weeks ago,” a foreign ministry official tells IRIN. · Humanitarian officials say that Angolan refugees arriving in northwestern Zambia from around Cazombo allege that UNITA is using civilians as human shields and preventing them from leaving as government warplanes bomb the strategic town. · UNHCR reports that at the beginning of June some 100 refugees were arriving a week from the Cazombo area, but the rate had slowed to an average of 20 people, mostly women and children. Over the previous six months, UNHCR registers some 5,000 new arrivals at the Maheba refugee camp from around Cazombo. AUGUST · Over 560 new Angolan refugees cross into Zambia from Cazombo in one week. They enter through Zambezi, Chavuma and Mwinilunga districts. · At the end of the month, two bombs dropped by Angolan warplanes land on the Zambian border town of Jimbe. There are no casualties and Zambian officials say most of the bombs fell on the Angolan side of the frontier. · The Angolan authorities say Zambia broke diplomatic protocol by announcing the bombing incident. While denying Lusaka’s claims, a defence ministry spokesman said Zambia should have consulted the joint security commission before making a public statement. SEPTEMBER · UNHCR reports a sharp increase in the number of refugees fleeing from Moxico. In one week alone at the end of August, the agency says that more than 1,000 people mostly women and children entered Zambia - a fourfold increase. They were transferred to the Maheba refugee settlement in the Northwest Province. Another 200 refugees arrived at the Mayukwayukwa camp in Zambia’s Western Province. · A group of heavily armed men in military uniform attack the border town of Chavuma from Angola and steal cattle. Zambian police detain three Zambians whom they allege were assisting UNITA rebels in the area.