Repatriation flights to Angola increased

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has increased its flights taking Angolan refugees home from Zambia to three times a day, an official told IRIN on Monday. "For the past two weeks, we have been operating 18 flights a week to achieve our target of repatriating more than 32,000 Angolans by the end of this year," said UNHCR spokesperson Kelvin Shimo. The agency was initially operating three flights a week to Angola. The airlifts fly from Mongu in western Zambia to Lumbala N'Guimbo in Angola's eastern Moxico province and Huambo in the centre of the country. Most of the Angolans flown home are from Mayukwayukwa and Nangweshi camps, both in Zambia's Western province. The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which has been contracted to transport the Angolans, is taking an average of 300 refugees home every day. "The number of flights actually varies - at times we are able to operate four flights a day," said the IOM's Manny Villaflores. More than 200,000 Angolans sought refuge in Zambia during the civil war. UNHCR began its voluntary repatriation programme last year, and hopes to have helped around 53,000 Angolans to return by the end of 2004. According to the Angolan government, 70,000 refugees have repatriated under their own steam since a 2002 ceasefire agreement which ended three decades of civil war. Each returnee helped by UNHCR is provided with enough food rations to last them until the next harvest in January/February 2005.