Angolan refugees flee to DRC amid renewed fighting

Fighting in northern Angola has sent a new wave of refugees into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday. At least 3,000 Angolans have already arrived in the DRC town of Kimvula since mid-September and nearly 250 more are arriving daily. They are fleeing renewed fighting between Angolan government forces and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) at Kimbindi, in the north of Angola's Uige province. Kimvula, which already had close to 9,000 refugees from an influx in August, is 30 km north of Angola's northern border with the DRC. The refugees who arrived during August were awaiting transfer to sites away from the border.

UNHCR has begun to register the latest group of refugees in preparation for their transfer, along with earlier groups, to settlement sites allocated by local DRC authorities. UNHCR is also negotiating for two additional sites to settle the most recent arrivals. Local authorities had earlier allocated three sites for the previous group.

UNHCR specialists have been deployed to the new sites, some 60 km to 80 km from the border, and have begun to demarcate parcels for distribution to the refugees. Refugee families transferred to the area will receive two to three hectares of land for subsistence farming, along with preliminary food and household supplies.

The new movement comes barely two months after some 15,000 refugees fled to the DRC following a UNITA attack on a northern Angola town. The latest influx brings to close to 200,000 Angolan refugees in the DRC. At least three million people - about a quarter of Angola's total population - have been driven from their homes by fighting since Angola's 1975 independence from Portugal.