Angola has expelled 418 foreigners, mostly Congolese, as part of its ongoing crackdown on diamond traffickers, police commander Tito Munana was quoted as saying in newspaper reports on Friday.
The foreigners were part of a group of 1 005 people detained last month as part of Operation Diamond launched by the police and the army in December last year to end trafficking in resources.
The 418 illegal migrants were deported from the oil town of Soyo in the northern Zaire province to their countries of origin, said Munana.
After a 45-day moratorium on the expulsions, Angola announced in early August that it planned to resume a crackdown on suspected diamond and other traffickers that led to the expulsion of about 120 000 Congolese and 35 000 West Africans.
United Nations agencies and human rights groups have said the anti-foreigner campaign has been carried out brutally and that some some women and children had been raped and forced to walk long distances without food or water.
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ government has defended the operation by calling it an ”act of sovereignty in defence of the economy” of Angola, which depends on its diamond exports and oil for hard currency.
A former Portuguese colony, Angola is one of Africa’s top oil and diamond producers. – Sapa-AFP