Refugee agency launches final phase of repatriation for Angolans in DRC

KIMPESE, Democratic Republic of the Congo, October 13 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency on Friday launched the final phase of its repatriation operation for Angolan refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by starting to return home more than 20,000 Angolan refugees and their dependants from the Bas Congo region.

When this phase - targeting the most vulnerable - is completed in December, it will mark the end of UNHCR's four-year repatriation programme for Angolan refugees.

A seven-truck convoy left this town some 300 kilometres south-west of the DRC capital, Kinshasa, carrying 195 people. They were headed for Mbanza Congo, five hours away in northern Angola, where they were due to receive shelter kits, agricultural tools, seeds for planting and food rations for three months. Other assistance will include training in tailoring, bakery and crop production.

"We are happy to see happy refugees return home, many of whom were born in exile and only know home by the name. I wish them good luck," said Eusebe Hounsokou, UNHCR representative for DRC, while waving off the convoy with local government officials.

The returnees included 81-year-old Marie Marneza, who was leaving her simple shelter after 45 years of exile. Although Kimpese had become a second home and she was sad to say goodbye to close Congolese friends, the mother of nine was elated to be going back to Angola. "I never before today imagined that we will go back to our country," she said.

The old lady fled to Bas Congo to escape fighting in Angola in 1961 and - like the others returning Friday - had integrated with the local community. Further waves of Angolans crossed into the province in 1972 and 1992.

UNHCR officially ended the repatriation operation for all Angolan refugees living in refugee sites in four countries bordering Angola in late 2005, but agreed to extend the repatriation programme for a further year to help those living outside the camps to return home before the end of this year. Some refugees in Zambia have also had a last chance to return home during this extension period.

Recently, UNHCR registered nearly 120,000 so-called spontaneously settled Angolan refugees out of the total 146,000 in the DRC. This particular group of refugees in the DRC is unique, as they settled among Congolese communities and for decades lived and worked alongside their hosts.

"The completion of the registration of spontaneously settled Angolan refugees has cleared the way for the repatriation operation that we are launching today," UNHCR's Hounsokou said.

During registration some 60,000 of these refugees said they wanted to return to Angola. UNHCR agreed to assist more than 20,000 vulnerable refugees and their dependants - the elderly, single mothers without steady family support networks, unaccompanied children and those unable to return on their own.

Earlier this week, UNHCR trucks travelled to several villages in Bas Congo to collect the returning Angolan families. The agency has identified nearly 60 pick-up points which will be used over the next two months to collect refugees, as their homes are scattered in more than one hundred villages across the province.

The operation is extremely demanding as the road network in many parts of the Bas Congo is non-existent. In many areas, bridges are either destroyed or too weak for heavy vehicles. In some cases refugees will have to walk long distances to reach collection points to board trucks taking them to a transit centre.

Because of the poor state of the roads and the dangers of mines in Angola, UNHCR is considering airlifting home more than 5,000 refugees who want to return to villages in Uíge province in northern Angola.

During three decades of conflict, nearly half a million Angolans fled to neighbouring countries. Today's convoy is scheduled to cross into Angola at Luvo/Lufu border point which in June 2003 was the scene of a jubilant ceremony launching UNHCR's repatriation for Angolan refugees. Since then, some 370,000 Angolans refugees have returned home, including nearly 180,000 from the DRC.

By David Nthengwe in Kimpese, Democratic Republic of the Congo