Global Policy Forum

By Anthony Mukwita

Lusaka - The number of Angolans fleeing the latest conflict in their country and seeking refuge in Zambia has reach 5000, with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) warning that the figure could double in the next few weeks, if the fighting in that country escalates. The number of the new comers has risen from 3,700 to 5,000 in just two weeks.

Musengo Kayombo, assistant programmes officer at the UNHCR office in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, has attributed the influx to the current fighting in which government troops have advanced closer to the Zambian border to flush out the rebels of the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA). "It appears (government forces) have done a serious mop up in the border area," Kayombo says. "As a result, the people in the border areas have been fleeing in large numbers but not as high as when renewed fighting started (last year).''

''At least 40 refugees are entering Zambia everyday, that is the maximum number so far (but) we expect more to come in," he says. The UNHCR says most of the new comers enter Zambia through the northwestern border towns of Mwinilunga and Chavuma, and through the western frontier post of Lukulu. After screening, the refugees are transported to the main resettlement camps in Meheba in northwestern Zambia and to Mayukwayukwa in western province. Kayombo says four trucks have been stationed at the border to help transport the refugees.

The influx of the Angolans has coincided with the influx of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Mwange refugee camp in northern Zambia, where the number of newcomers shot to about 17,000 from just about 16,000 in a few weeks. Some of the Congolese refugees initially settled in the border villages such as Kaputa but have decided to join the others in the camps so that they can get food aid, says UNHCR Resident Representative in Zambia, Olusaiye Bajulaiye. He says hunger has forced the refugees to move into camps, although a few of them are newcomers who have fled the 13-month-old conflict in the DRC.

Zambia, hosts a total of 200,000 refugees mostly from the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and Angola. The refugees have been pouring into Zambia since the early 1960s and some of them have become part of the Zambian community, having built their own houses and businesses.

The conflict in Angola erupted soon after the Southern African nation of 12.6 million people gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The latest peace treaty, signed between Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi, which was brokered by Zambia, in Lusaka in 1994, collapsed in December 1998 after the two sides resumed fighting.

Savimbi's war machinery is being financed through proceeds from the sales of diamond, while that of the government is being funded through oil. The UN has slapped sanctions on UNITA and Savimbi in a bid to force an early end to the senseless war which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions.