Refugees flee UNITA attack

Angolan UNITA rebels attacked the southern Angolan border town of Kwangari early on Thursday, sending civilians fleeing across the Kavango river into Namibia, Namibia’s regional army commander told IRIN.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bernard Nkawa said UNITA attacked at 4.30 a.m. local time, but were repulsed in a “heavy” 90-minute gun battle clearly audible on the Namibian side of the border. “Up to now the town is under the control of FAA (the Angolan army) and they are conducting mopping up operations,” he added.

Nkawa said around 200 Angolan refugees crossed to the northern Namibian town of Nkurenkuru, 140 km west of the regional district capital of Rundu, to escape the fighting. UNHCR said on Thursday that 103 of them had chosen to stay in Namibia and would be transported from Nkurenkuru to a transit camp at Kasava, 77 km from Rundu. From there they are to be registered and moved on to the Osire refugee camp, 250 km north of the Namibian capital, Windhoek.

The latest influx of Angolans into Nkurenkuru followed a recent lull in refugee arrivals in Namibia as FAA consolidated its positions along the northern bank of the Kavango river, an area under UNITA control for more than two decades.

“Refugee arrivals come with an offensive,” UNHCR representative in Rundu, Jimmy Mbendela told IRIN. “When it’s quiet, it’s minimal.”

Last month, around 70-100 Angolans a week were crossing into Kavango. In December, when the FAA launched its offensive into southern Angola using Namibian territory as a springboard, some 2,500 refugees were fleeing into Kavango each week.