Namibia/Angola: UNHCR started first airlift

Yesterday, Thursday, UNHCR, in a joint operation with IOM, started its first airlift of Angolan refugees from Namibia to Huambo in the central Angolan highlands. This is the first operation of its kind from Namibia to help refugees return to non-bordering provinces in Angola. Some 27 flights are planned to carry back over 4,000 of the 10,000 Angolan refugees currently in Namibia. Poor roads, with broken bridges and mines, make it impossible to return the refugees to the central highlands by any other safe means.

The first 105 returnees were registered and underwent formalities such as customs and immigration at Osire refugee camp in northern Namibia earlier in the week, then on Thursday left the camp early in the morning, travelled by convoy to the capital Windhoek and flew directly from Hosea Kutako International Airport to Huambo. For many of the refugees it was their first flight, but their nervousness was overcome by excitement at the prospect of going home.

UNHCR has also been repatriating Angolans from Namibia by land on convoys to the border provinces of Kuando Kubango and Cunene. Using both land and air routes, we hope to repatriate nearly all Angolan refugees in Namibia this year.

Overall, nearly 24,000 Angolans refugees have returned home this year on UNHCR organised convoys - from Namibia (2,615), from DRC (10,834) and from Zambia (10,630). When the 2002 April peace accords were signed, an estimated 441,000 Angolan refugees were estimated to be living in bordering countries. Since then, some 250,000 have returned home leaving about 200,000 Angolans in the major asylum countries of DRC, Zambia, Namibia and the Republic of Congo.