More refugees enter DRC

More than 2,000 new Angolan refugees have arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border town of Kimvula over the past few days, bringing to nearly 10,000 the total number who have fled to the DRC, UNHCR said in a statement on Friday.

NGOs working in Kimvula reported that the estimated 2,000 refugees who began arriving in the small town during this week have settled in several villages in the area. Kimvula is some 120 kms east of an area called Kitompolo, which has also received in the last 10 days thousands of new Angolan refugees fleeing a UNITA rebel attack on the northern towns of Beu and Cuilo Futa. By Thursday, UNHCR had registered some 7,200 new refugees in Kitompolo. An estimated 700 others are also still in border villages near the area, the statement said.

The Angolan refugees, mainly women and children, fled with few belongings and are living in extremely difficult conditions along the border under rudimentary shelters. They are in generally good physical condition, although a few cases of diarrhoea have been reported. UNHCR has deployed additional staff to the border to assist with registration, the distribution of basic supplies and to expedite arrangements for the transfer of the refugees away from border areas.

Fernando Mendes, head of the UNHCR office in the northern Angolan town of Uige, told IRIN that the region’s military commander had assured humanitarian workers on Tuesday that the government was determined to prevent UNITA from capturing the border town of Maquela de Zombo. Humanitarian sources said the fighting around Beu and Cuilo Futa was strategically significant as UNITA was trying to re-establish a supply corridor between the DRC and Angola.