Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Luanda (Agenzia Fides) - “We saw unimaginable suffering and appalling conditions.” This is how Fr. Andrzej Halemba and Fr. Ulrich Kny of the Association of Pontifical Right Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) describe the conditions of the Angolans forced out of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In a note sent to Fides, the two representatives of ACN who have spent two weeks in Angola, told of their visit to several refugee camps in the town of Damba, in northern Angola.
"Governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and the neighboring Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) are driving the Angolan citizens from their territory rather brutal methods, with the police and groups of civilians who arrive without warning and order the Angolans to leave the country immediately," said the statement from Aid to the Church in Need. Without any warning, Angolan workers were fired and students were expelled from schools. Thousands of people were forced to return immediately to Angola, without even having the opportunity to gather their poor belongings. Families were divided and the children were left alone: in the chaos that has been created, they cannot find their parents. Families of both Angolan and Congolese nationalities have been forced to separate and leave behind the spouse of Congolese nationality. The refugees have been forced in some cases to travel 900 km on foot, with no sympathy for the weak, the elderly, the sick, children and pregnant women.
The two Angolan dioceses of Uíje and Mbanza Congo are now facing the challenge of helping thousands of starving, exhausted and in many cases gravely ill refugees. For example, in the town of Damba five reception camps have been set up, but heavy thunderstorms have so softened the ground that conditions where the tents have been set up are quite catastrophic, with huge puddles forming inside some of the tents themselves. Ulrich Kny reports: "Some of the refugees are attempting to continue walking straight on, to their relatives in other villages. Others have no idea where to go – their villages were totally destroyed during the civil war and their relatives have long since fled. Others again have been turned away by their relatives and are returning, still more deeply wounded, to one of the reception camps.”
In Damba, four Franciscan Capuchins and four Sisters of Mercy are caring for the flood of refugees. The sisters have opened up their convent to the refugees. "The sisters are helping as much as they can. They are taking people in, distributing food, utensils, nappies, medicines and clothing; they are making sure that the refugees are vaccinated against tetanus, polio and other diseases and trying to provide spiritual and psychological support to the suffering", Father Halemba reports.
Estimates suggest that in the last few weeks as many as 40,000 Angolans have been expelled from the two Congos. It appears that this is a blatant act of "revenge" for the expulsion of illegal Congolese refugees in Angola, which began two years ago. Unlike that action, however, the expulsion from the two Congos is not limited to illegal immigrants but is directed against all Angolans, who have been living legally in the two countries, either as refugees from the Angolan civil war or for other reasons. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/11/2009)
