UNHCR to assist displaced

A UNHCR technical team arrived in Angola at the weekend to examine the role the refugee agency could play in assisting
internally displaced people (IDPs).

"It is a response to a government request, but more importantly a response to the dramatic humanitarian conditions in Angola," Nicolas Bwakira, UNHCR's Regional Director for Southern Africa told IRIN. "UNHCR should get involved with displaced people. We have a clear impression that the needs are immense."

Bwakira, who participated in an inter-agency assessment mission to Angola last month, said: "We noticed that assistance was not even. Basic things were missing in areas like shelter, clothing, and basic sanitation facilities. Health conditions were particularly poor."

He said that UNHCR would assist IDPs in cooperation with other UN agencies "within UNHCR's mandate and policies" on the displaced. He said UNHCR would concentrate in specific border areas where "we have returnees living side-by-side with displaced or returnees who have become IDPs and areas where we have sufficient accessibility and security."

Included in the five-person technical team visiting Angola is a legal officer who would examine issues of protection for IDPs, including forced relocation and rape, Bwakira added. Some 3.7 million Angolans are estimated to be affected by the country's civil war which re-ignited in December 1998.

Meanwhile, the government has asked the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to return to Angola, after the agency closed its office in 1998. "We have a person in Angola looking at areas where we could assist in the near future," Shun Chetty, IOM Regional Representative for Southern
Africa told IRIN.