Over 10,000 Angolans have fled to DRC

More than 2,000 new Angolan refugees have arrived in the DRC over the last few days, bringing to nearly 10,000 the number of people who fled northern Angola to the DRC following a rebel offensive earlier this month, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said on Friday. He quoted NGOs working in the area as saying that the 2,000 refugees who began arriving in the small Congolese town of Kimvula last week had settled in several villages in the region. Kimvula is some 120 km east of an area called Kitompolo, which in the last 10 days had also received thousands of new Angolan refugees fleeing the same conflict, he said. By Thursday, UNHCR had registered some 7,200 new refugees there, while an estimated 700 others were still in border villages near the area. Because of increasing numbers of new arrivals, UNHCR had requested Congolese authorities to make available more areas for the settlement of the estimated 10,000 refugees. Many refugees told UNHCR how the conflict between rebel UNITA forces and Angola’s government forces had forced them to leave their homes more than a dozen times for safer areas inside Angola. This was, however, the first time they had been compelled to cross the border, Janowski said. The refugees, mainly women and children, fled with few belongings and are living in extremely difficult conditions under rudimentary shelters along the border. They are in generally good physical condition, the spokesman said. The agency has deployed additional staff to the border to assist with registration, the distribution of basic supplies and to expedite arrangements for the transfer of the refugees away from border areas.