Share & more
About 1,100 civil war refugees have in the past few days crossed into Angola’s Cuanza Norte province, fleeing military instability and food shortages in their home areas of South Cuanza province, LUSA reported on Tuesday. Reports indicate that many more refugees are on the way, coming from the villages of Munenga and Cabuta in the Libolo district of Cuanza Sul.
The new arrivals have concentrated on the outskirts of the Cuanza Norte town of Dondo, about 150 km southeast of the capital Luanda, where they have yet to receive any humanitarian assistance, reports said. The soba (traditional authority) of Cabuta, Antonio Lucas, said on Monday that food, medicine and shelters were urgently needed. “The people are fleeing from hunger, but mainly from frequent skirmishes between government forces and UNITA (rebels)”, he said.
Elsewhere in Cuanza Norte, 900 refugees fleeing fighting in the Samba-Lucala and Samba-Caju districts have in the last few days reportedly reached the town of Lucala, about 270 km east of Luanda. Cuanza Norte province currently shelters about 135,000 civil war refugees, most of them from the neighbouring provinces of Uige, Malange and South Cuanza.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
