UNHCR completes transfer of 3,000 Angolan refugees

UNHCR announced on Tuesday that it completed on Friday the transfer of more than 3,000 Angolan refugees from the southwestern DRC border town of Kidompolo to six villages some 50 km inland deemed to be more secure, including Zomfi, Zulu and Sadi. The refugees are part of a group of nearly 10,000 Angolans who fled to the DRC in early August in the wake of a UNITA offensive on the northern Angolan town of Beu. The majority of the refugees made the journey to the new settlements on foot because of extremely poor road conditions.

However, vulnerable refugees, including young children, the sick, the elderly and the disabled were transported by truck. Over the weekend, many of the refugees began constructing shelters on half-hectares of land set aside for them. UNHCR and partners will provide seeds, tools and other aid to the refugees over the next several months. However, future support will be community-based and focus mainly on health and education facilities in localities where refugees have settled, UNHCR noted.

Meanwhile, an estimated 4,000 other Angolan refugees who arrived in the DRC during August still remain in border areas, including some 2,000 in the town of Kimvula, a remote area 120 km east of Kidompolo where the majority of the new arrivals have been gathered, and a similar number scattered across several other villages. UNHCR has begun preparations for the transfer of refugees from Kimvula to villages further from the border, including Zulu, Zomfi and Sadi. More than 2,000 others have returned on their own to their homes in areas around the town of Maquela do Zombo, in northern Angola. Before this recent influx, the DRC was hosting over 180,000 Angolan refugees. UNHCR is assisting over 70,000 of them in Bas-Congo and Katanga provinces.