Angola’s government has given the green light for a chartered plane to bring home more than 700 refugees from Zambia who have been awaiting return for the past three weeks, a UN official said Wednesday.
About 724 Angolan refugees were being kept at a makeshift camp in Mongu, about 700km west of the Zambian capital Lusaka, as UN officials awaited clearance from Luanda for the airlift.
”Clearance has now being given to fly the refugees within a period of 15 days,” said Ahmed Farah, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNCHR) resident representative in Zambia.
”I wish it was given for a longer time,” Farah said as other groups of refugees were also awaiting repatriation.
A senior Zambian government official said the Angolan government apparently refused to grant permission for a chartered plane to land in Angola because it was unhappy the UNHCR did not use the country’s national airline.
Zambian officials were meeting with their Angolan counterparts in Lusaka on Monday to try to resolve some of the problems with the refugee return that is due to be completed by November.
”Clearly, the implementation of this year’s programme appears to have been fraught with many difficulties and challenges with only 8 400 refugees out of the targeted 34 500 having been assisted to return,” said Home Affairs Secretary Peter Mumba.
The Angolan government has attributed the delay to lack of coordination among all sides involved in the repatriation programme.
”There is no coordination and this has caused confusion,” said Nilsa de Fatima Pereira, the Angolan director for social services.
About half a million Angolans fled their country during a 27-year war that ended with the signing of a peace accord in 2002.
Zambia shelters more than 200 000 Angolan refugees, mainly in refugee camps while others live in major towns where they are either working or involved in business.
Zambia’s western and northwestern provinces share a long border with the eastern part of Angola. – AFP
