UNHCR considering relief supply airlift

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said it is considering airlifting relief supplies to thousands of Angolan refugees in Angola because heavy rains in the western Zambezi River district had made many roads in the area impassable.

UNHCR officials told IRIN on Tuesday that water levels on the river after heavy rains were rising and had already forced a stop to a strategic ferry service. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) said relief agencies in Zambia assisting an estimated 21,000 Angolans who had arrived since last October were now facing a “race against time” to get enough food and water delivered before the five-month rainy season.

The country’s foreign minister, Keli Walubita, said increased fighting in Angola between government forces and UNITA rebels was likely to result in further influxes in coming weeks.

Walubita was particularly concerned about his parliamentary constituency in Sinjembela, in Zambia’s Western Province where over 7,000 refugees had arrived in the past 10 days. He also cited the Kalabo district further north, some 250 km upstream, where even more refugees had crossed over.

Appealing to UNHCR and relief agencies to boost their operations, he told journalists after a visit to Sinjembela that many of the refugees were maimed, elderly or blind and unable to look after themselves: “The situation is bad in Sinjembela, there is no clean water and other facilities,” he said. “The UNHCR needs to move a lot of logistics and relocate refugees settled spontaneously to designated areas.”

UNHCR said it had already delivered emergency supplies by road and was now considering the option of airlifting food and other emergency supplies to both areas which lie on the now almost inaccessible western banks of the upper Zambezi.