Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - The first in a series of air lifts to repatriate Angolan refugees to Huambo in central Angola organised by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migrants has been completed.
“This is the first operation of its kind to help Angolan refugees return to more interior provinces far from the border” UNHCR said in a report sent to Fides.
“The UNHCR has planned 27 flights to transport some 4,000 of the 10,000 Angolan refugees in Namibia. Because of bad road conditions, broken bridges and antipersonnel mines strewn all over the area this is the only safe way to return people to the central highlands” the report said. The first 105 refugee passengers were registered at Osire camp. After completing the necessary border and immigration procedures they boarded a convoy for Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, where they were flown from Hosea Kutako airport to Huambo, in Angola. For many it was the first time they time they boarded a plane but the joy of returning home soon overcame fear of flying.
UNHCR is also organising repatriation of Angolan refugees via land with convoys directed to the border provinces of Kuando Kubango and Cunene and hopes to help all Angolan refugees in Namibia to return to their country, via air or via land, before the end of the year.
Already this year UNHCR has helped some 24,000 Angolans return home: 10,834 from Democratic Congo, 10,630 from Zambia, 2,615 from Namibia. It is estimated that when the agreement for peace in Angola was signed in April 2002, 441,000 Angolans had fled the country in search of safety. Since then 250,000 have been repatriated and another 200,000 are still in Democratic Congo, Zambia, Namibia and the Republic of Congo. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/9/2004 righe 32 parole 360)
