UNHCR starts Angolan repatriation season from DR Congo
UNHCR starts Angolan repatriation season from DR Congo
KIMPESE, Democratic Republic of the Congo, July 6 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency has started helping the first groups of Angolan refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to go home this year after the rainy season.
On Tuesday, 130 Angolan refugees left Kimpese in the DRC's Bas Congo province for M'banza Congo in northern Angola. They joined 377 others who went home last Friday on this year's first return convoy from the DRC to Angola.
Kicking off the DRC part of this year's Angolan repatriation operation, Friday's group left Kisenge refugee site in the DRC's Katanga province after an emotional farewell. Many of them wept uncontrollably amid excited singing and ululation.
"When every day you think that the war in your country will be over tomorrow, 20 years can pass without ever losing hope of returning home," said Aida Haile Mariam, UNHCR's chief of operations in the DRC, at the ceremony in Kisenge.
The district commissioner for Lualaba, Ignace Tshikut, added it was important for the refugees to return home so that they could be productive members in their own communities.
The convoy received a warm welcome when it crossed into Luau in Moxico province, eastern Angola. At the Luau transit centre, the returnees were registered and got relief items like a tool kit, cooking supplies, sleeping mats and mosquito nets. They also received two-month rations of food from the World Food Programme, as well as medical care by Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgique. After spending a few days at the centre, they will be transported back to their home areas.
A total of 43,000 Angolan refugees are expected to return from the DRC this year. The UNHCR-organised convoys, which started last June and were suspended during the rainy season, will run twice a week until the end of the year.
This year's repatriation season to Angola has already started from Zambia (mid-June) and Namibia (May). In all, UNHCR plans to assist some 90,000 Angolan refugees home from neighbouring countries this year.
