New refugee influx from Angola

There has been a new refugee influx from Angola into Zambia, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN on Thursday. “Last weekend we saw 240 new Angolan refugees crossing over into northern Zambia from Angolan villages near the Zambian border,” Kelvin Shimo from UNHCR in Lusaka said. “We are currently transferring them to the Maheba refugee settlement as well as conducting a registration exercise.” Shimo said that UNHCR had already positioned enough food in “strategic areas” to deal with the new influx. “The refugees are in a stable condition,” Shimo noted. According to Shimo an estimated 1,000 new Angolan refugees crossed over into Zambia each month. “Some of these are Angolans who have already settled along the Angola-Zambia border and are now crossing over into Zambia and are presenting themselves as refugees,” said Shimo. Zambia is currently home to some 255,000 refugees. These include over 199,000 Angolans, and an estimated 47,000 from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).