Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Luanda (Agenzia Fides) – Over 42,000 Angolans have been sent back to their homeland from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is what the Angolan press agency ANGOP was told by Bohdan Nahajlo, representative in Angola of the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees). The functionay of the UN entity says that the largest influx has occurred in the province of Zaire.
The UNHCR has developed an assistance plan that includes the distribution of primary need items and tents. The UNHCR representative added that an initial evaluation of the situation in northern Zaire has been carried out by a group formed by various humanitarian agencies and representatives of the Social Welfare Ministry (Minars). Among the registered needs are tents, cooking utensils, plastic bags, medicines, and medical attention.
The UNHCR has sent a plane from South Africa with over 2,000 tents and other equipment and six specialists in coordinating emergency aid situations.
In a statement sent to Agenzia Fides, the UNHCR affirms that there are nearly 30,000 people in the two centers in Cuimba (11,000) and in Mama Rosa (nearly 18,000), located at 30 km and 8 km from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are in urgent need of lodging, food, medicines, and medical stations. There is not enough drinking water, either. Some of the people drink from the nearby rivers which are highly contaminated. There are already cases of diarreah.
“There are significant numbers of Angolan refugees among the forcibly returned and this is for us the most worrisome aspect of the situation. Some of them say they had been rounded up and taken to the border despite the fact they carried documents certifying their refugee status. Others said they were forced back without having had the chance to take their identification documents or any of their belongings. Most of them were deported from the Bas Congo Province in southern DRC.”
“The expulsion of Angolans from DR Congo was in retaliation to a similar expulsion of a large number of Congolese nationals from Angola since December 2008. An agreement has been signed between the governments of DR Congo and Angola to end to the cross border expulsions. However, UNHCR says Angolan authorities are preparing for further, large-scale returns of Angolans who feel they can no longer remain in the DRC,” the UNHCR's statement concludes.
For weeks now, relations between Angola and the DRC have been marked by tension due to the reciprocal expulsions of citizens from the two countries (see Fides 22/10/2009). There is also the question of the repartition of oil resources in a common area of the Atlantic Ocean, which looms on the horizon. The differences between the two countries will be addressed at the summit of the Central African Economic Community (CEEAC), which opens today, October 24, in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 24/10/2009)
