Wider cooperation in resettling refugees - UNHCR

For the first time in years multiple opportunities exist throughout Africa for the potential repatriation of up to 2 million refugees, and millions more internally displaced people, a senior UN official said this week. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, was upbeat at a meeting in Geneva on Monday to discuss the prospects for repatriation in several countries, including Angola, Sierra Leone, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He however noted that the return and resettlement process would require "sustained and coordinated support from African countries themselves". The UN refugee agency sponsored meeting brought together some 60 delegates from Africa, including government officials, donors and representatives of international organisations. Participants agreed to set up a working group to support the return home of millions of refugees in at least nine African countries. "Resettlement and reintegration need to become part and parcel of country development strategies, in an all-inclusive setting, with a clear focus on entire communities," said the European Commission's Poul Nielson, one of the keynote speakers at the meeting. UNHCR said that since the end of the war in Angola in 2002, progress has been made with the return of some 3.7 million refugees and IDPs, but stressed that formidable constraints still existed. The widespread presence of landmines, inadequate or non-existent physical infrastructure and weak local administration were seen as the chief obstacles to the repatriation process. Nearly 40 percent of Angola's four main provinces of return (Moxico, Zaire, Uige and Cuando Cubango) remained inaccessible due to landmine infestation and bad roads, according to UNHCR. With the end of the seasonal rains in May, the refugee agency planned to assist 80,000 refugees to return from the DRC, 50,000 from Zambia, 10,000 from Namibia and 5,000 from Congo. The 45,000 people who had returned spontaneously would benefit from the same assistance as was provided to refugees who returned through organised repatriation. During January, some 1,200 spontaneous returnees had already passed through the agency's seven reception centres. UNHCR will expand its activities this year to include the northern Angolan provinces of Malanje, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul. In addition to the four existing repatriation corridors, a fifth route linking camps in the DRC's western Bas-Congo region with Angola's Uige Province will be opened.