Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals accused of diamond trafficking in Angola are being held in ”inhuman conditions in Angolan jails, said the non-governmental organisation Voices without Voices on Wednesday.
In a statement aired on the Roman Catholic radio station Ecclesia, the human rights group said it was concerned for the lives of those ”detained under inhuman conditions in the prisons of the Angolan security services”.
It also denounced the forced repatriation of DRC nationals.
”Some 10 000 Congolese living in the diamond-producing zones in Angola’s northern provinces were forcibly returned to the DRC in December and January,” it said.
The group said the repatriations were carried out by police and troops ”in collaboration with mobs of furious civilians who could no longer stand having the Congolese living among them”.
The group urged the Kinshasa government to intervene with Angolan authorities to help its citizens.
Foreign ministry permanent secretary Arcanjo Maria do Nascimento said he was not aware of any problem.
”We have no report from the DRC government about this situation,” he said, adding that operations against diamond smugglers were the responsibility of the army.
General Egidio ”Disciplina” de Sousa, in charge of combatting diamond smuggling, declared: ”In this operation, the responsibility of the military is to arrest everybody, Angolan or foreign, who is exploiting the country’s diamonds illegally, and to seize the material used.”
He added that ”the foreigners arrested have been handed over to the immigration services for repatriation to their countries of origin”.
Some 700 diamond traffickers, including 334 foreigners, have been arrested in the central province of Bie in a huge sweep the army has been carrying out since December, according to official figures.
The government says that of around 290 000 diamond traffickers in the country, 90 000 are foreigners, mostly from the DRC, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone. – Sapa-AFP