Humanitarian situation of expelled Congolese "stabilising"

The humanitarian situation of tens of thousands of Congolese who had been expelled from Angola into two southwestern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is stabilising as the number of new arrivals decreases, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday.

In a report detailing the situation of the expellees in the provinces of Bandundu and Kasai Occidental, OCHA said that the improvement in the humanitarian conditions could be attributed to a request made by the Congolese authorities to Angola to halt the expulsion of illegal migrants in its diamond mines until better conditions for their return could be arranged.

OCHA also said there had been a dramatic reduction of the numbers of Congolese arriving from Angola. "On April 19, 606 people were registered entering into Kahunga, Bandundu Province, while only 10 days later the number had dropped to approximately 20 per day," it reported

OCHA said there were unconfirmed reports of a recent arrival of an estimated 5,000 expellees in Luiza, an area in the Congo near the northeastern Angola border.

Although the number of daily arrivals had decreased, OCHA expressed concern about the continuing reports of sexual abuse by Angolan military authorities, under the pretext of searching for hidden diamonds among the expellees.

Since the latest wave of expulsions began in March, official estimates state that 80,000 to 100,000 illegal diamond migrants are though to have, or will soon be forcibly removed from Angola, OCHA reported.

"On 20 April, approximately 67,000 Congolese had already been registered by local crisis committees as entering into Democratic Republic of Congo through five frontier localities in Bandundu and Western Kasai provinces which border Angola," it said.

In response to the situation, OCHA reported, several international NGOs had provided aid for the expellees.

The UN Children's Fund, in conjunction with NGOs Catholic Relief Services and Caritas, had begun distributing non-food items in Kahungula in Bandundu, and was currently repositioning its supplies in anticipation of the next wave of expellees.

OCHA reported that the UN World Food Programme had distributed eight-day rations to the expellees and that a French NGO, Atlas Logistiques, is to begin work on two bridges between Tembo and Kahungula, which are currently preventing the delivery of further humanitarian aid.

[A pdf version of an OCHA map showing the movement of the expelled Congolese ]