Zambia: former UNITA fighters to be moved

UNHCR and Zambian authorities have agreed to move former UNITA fighters, many of them ill with malaria and respiratory problems, to a new camp in the east of the country, far away from the Angolan border. Their transfer may begin as early as this week. The new camp will also house former fighters from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, currently held in Zambian prisons. The new site at Patauke, some 350 km north east of Lusaka will house 275 former UNITA fighters and their families. Some 200 UNITA fighters who have fled Angola since September 23 are currently staying in the open at Solwezi in north-western Zambia. Roughly half of them are believed to be suffering from malaria and respiratory problems. The remaining 75 are in Mungu on the Zambezi River in western Zambia. The new site will also house the families of the combatants. They will be accommodated at a separate camp within the same site. UNHCR and Zambian officials will do individual screening of the former combatants. Another separate group of 95 former participants in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be released from custody and also moved to the new site.