Thousands seek refuge in Zambia

Renewed fighting in eastern Angola has sent thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into neighbouring Zambia, the UN's refugee agency has announced. Ron Redmond, a UNHCR spokesman, told a press briefing in Geneva on 19 October that there had been at least 3,500 new arrivals in the past few days - well above the average of 1,000 per month. He said that the refugees had fled towns in Angola's eastern Cuando Cubango province and were making their way to Zambia's Western province. "UNHCR is organising urgent assistance for groups of Angolan refugees who are making their way to Zambia's Western province," Redmond said. Redmond said that the increase had raised fears of a "sustained" influx as fighting "rages in and around" Angolan towns. "Some of the towns are reported to have changed hands," he added. Redmond said that border authorities first alerted UNHCR's sub-office in Mongu in western Zambia, last weekend, reporting groups of refugees crossing the border. "UNHCR sent trucks to pick up the refugees and transfer them to Nangweshi camp, in the far southwestern corner of Zambia," Redmond told journalists. He added that 1,240 refugees had been transferred to the camp. Redmond added that UNHCR protection staff had found more than 2,100 Angolan refugees in several border villages in the Shangombo district in Zambia. "In the village of Mambolomoka, 32 km north of Shangombo town, a group of about 1,000 people had arrived, many of them in deplorable condition," he said. "The UNHCR team estimated that 60 percent of them are children suffering severe malnutrition." According to Redmond a transit centre is being built in Shangombo to house refugees awaiting transportation to Nangweshi. UNHCR said the new arrivals had come from the eastern Angolan towns of Kabaleka and Cilenga. "UNHCR believes more refugees are on the way making the difficult, dangerous and sometimes circuitous journey to the Zambian border," he told journalists. There are an estimated 200,000 Angolan refugees in Zambia. Meanwhile, in a separate development Lusa reported on Monday that the Angolan army had captured a "key" UNITA military base in the coastal Benguela province. Lusa quoted the national news agency ANGOP as saying that government troops had "dismantled" the Epongoloko rebel base, described as the command centre for much of Benguela.