Rains hamper UNHCR relief efforts in Bas-Congo

Heavy tropical rains are hampering efforts to help thousands of recently arrived Angolan refugees settle in the Kimvula area, in the western Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Tuesday. "As of this week, a total of 7,216 Angolan refugees have been moved by UNHCR trucks from the border area with Angola, to five integration sites around Kimvula, some 60 km to 80 km farther inland," spokesperson Ron Redmond said at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday. "Small numbers of people are still arriving on foot to some of the sites as well." The operation began on 7 Nov., with refugees transported to subdivided sites. Refugees receive between two and three hectares of land and some tools to start cultivating crops. The majority of the recent arrivals are women and children, among whom there is already a high rate of malnutrition. Many also lack proper clothes. A general distribution of two-week food rations was recently completed in the five sites. The Salvation Army donated 4.8 mt of rice and 1.2 mt of beans, as well as used clothes for UNHCR to distribute to the refugees. "The rains and the lack of plastic sheeting have hampered the building of shelter, and most refugees are still hosted in the community centres at the sites," Redmond said. "MSF has also carried out a general vaccination campaign against measles." The refugees who were moved to integration sites were part of a group of some 15,000 who had arrived in the DRC in several waves since August this year, following an increase in fighting in Angola's northern province of Uige. "Recent visits in local villages along the border have shown that they are now mostly empty of refugees," Redmond said. "Part of the groups who had come from Angolan villages close to the border may have returned spontaneously since then." This latest influx brought the total number of Angolan refugees in the DRC to close to 200,000.