Angolan refugee repatriation set to continue

The repatriation of Angolan refugees living in Zambia is set to continue through to December, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN. A tripartite commission, comprising UNHCR and the governments of Angola and Zambia, met in Luanda last week and decided that repatriation should be extended, said Shimo. "We are waiting for Geneva [UNHCR headquarters] to endorse the conclusion of the tripartite commission at the meeting in Angola, once that is done we will be able to start approaching donors for funding [for the repatriation exercise]," he added. Shimo noted that the food crisis that affected refugee camps in Zambia earlier this year had now been resolved. Both the government of Zambia and the World Food Programme (WFP) had issued urgent appeals in December 2005 for donations in a bid to avoid cutting refugee rations, but donors were slow to react and refugees were on half-rations from 1 January. "The United States has since given us 2,000 mt of food aid and the British Department for International Development made a donation, so the situation has been stabilised. As a result refugees are getting full rations again," Shimo explained. However, he said the WFP would run out of food stocks by August unless it received a further US $4.6 million in funding. There are currently 26,000 Angolans in refugee camps in Zambia and an additional 22,000 who are 'self-settled' and live outside the camps. Shimo said UNHCR would conduct a survey of the remaining Angolan refugees in Zambia to ascertain how many of them wish to return to their home country. "Until we do the survey we cannot say [how many will be repatriated], so we have set a deadline of 20 March to complete the survey," Shimo added. About 63,000 Angolan refugees have been repatriated from Zambia over the past three years.