The United Nations food agency is flying urgent aid to tens of thousands of Congolese who have been expelled from Angola amid reports of executions, rapes and forced separations of families.
The World Food Programme is planning to send 355 tons of food to the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — enough to feed 80 000 people for a week, said spokesperson Christiane Berthiaume.
”The situation is really urgent. We think that 80 000 more people could be expelled over the next 45 days,” she said.
The Angolan government is expelling Congolese who have been working illegally in diamond mines, along with their families.
UN agencies estimate that 2 500 people a day are arriving in the DRC with no food, shelter or water.
Before they leave, entire families are subjected to invasive body searches to ensure that they haven’t taken any diamonds with them. The UN says this has led to some deaths. There also have been drownings among people crossing the dangerous Tungila river that separates Angola from the DRC.
”People are arriving in a terrible condition. They have walked for hours, there were body searches on women and children, and there are reports of rapes of women,” Berthiaume said.
Damien Personnaz, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund, said families were being separated and there were cases of unaccompanied children.
”It is completely unacceptable. There is no structure,” he said.
He said aid workers also had reports, confirmed by several sources, of people being shot dead.
Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, has stressed that governments have the right to control who works within their borders, but that ”returns of migrant workers must be done without jeopardising people’s physical safety and dignity”.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said it was concerned for the safety of Angolan refugees in Congo, who have been subject to attacks by returning diamond workers.
An angry crowd set fire to two houses used by aid agencies at Napassa refugee site in the DRC’s Bandundu province, and later reportedly burned down two refugee shelters and carried out extensive looting in the nearby town of Kahemba, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
Deputy High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin visited the area on Tuesday, and the vehicle in which she was travelling was shaken and banged as she made her way to the refugee site, the UNHCR added.
”The fact that they are targeting an Angola refugee settlement is of course a huge concern for us,” said David Lambo, director of the UNHCR’s Africa bureau in Geneva.
”These refugees are already bearing the brunt of their own displacement and they should not be subjected to any further distress. [The] UNHCR would hate to see the problem spreading to other refugee settlements.” — Sapa-AP
Angolan expulsions cause ‘mayhem’