Red cross withdraws from Osire

The Namibian Red Cross Society (NRCS) is withdrawing its services from the Osire refugee camp.

"We will be withdrawing as of 31 December 2001," Geniene Veii, deputy secretary-general of the NRCS told IRIN on Tuesday. "Part of the reason that we are doing this is because of a lack of donor funding and partly because donors have been slow in making payments."

"It needs to be emphasised that we are not abandoning the refugees and we will continue with some services such as tracing which includes re-establishing links between families." she said. The NRCS has, up to now, acted as UNHCR's main implementing partner at the camp, helping with issues such as sanitation, food distribution and water provision.

The Osire camp is situated about 220 km northeast of Windhoek and houses about 21,000 refugees, most of whom are Angolan.

UNHCR in Namibia told IRIN that it was informed of the NRCS decision in September. "We have had some time to prepare and we have already approached some organisations who might be willing to work with us at Osire," a UNHCR spokesman said.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN that shortfalls in funding had in recent months affected services such as disease control and the provision of sanitation to refugees.

The UNHCR spokesman said that moving the Osire camp to another site was still under discussion between UNHCR and the government. "No definite site has been decided on yet and the government is still looking for a suitable site. Both UNHCR and the government are currently studying two reports that have been done on the issue," he said.