POPULATION-ANGOLA: Refugees Return Home after 28 Years in Exile

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Rosemary Nalisa

WINDHOEK, Jun 4 2003 (IPS) - More than 20,000 Angolan refugees will start returning home this month after 28 years in exile in Namibia, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

A team comprising officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and from the Namibian government left for Angola on Jun. 4 on a fact finding mission. The team, which will be joined by their Angolan counterpart, will assess whether it is safe for the refugees to return home. It will also examine the living and hygienic conditions of the areas the refugees will return to.

UNHCR’s David Nthengwe says the repatriation process will be conducted in phases.

"The repatriation process depends on the team’s findings and if the team is satisfied, we will immediately start registering the Angolan refugees interested in going back to their country. We want to make sure that they will go back to a safe and hygienic environment," he says.

The UNHCR says it is also conducting landmine awareness campaigns in Osire, central Namibia, and Cassava, northeast Namibia, refugee camps. The exercise, says Nthengwe, is necessary as the majority of the refugees are returning to the mine-littered Cuando Cubango Province in southern Angola. The U.N. refugee agency will also ensure that the reception centres in the province are equipped with latrines and clean water.

Namibia has been home to more than 20,000 Angolan refugees living in Osire and Cassava. Some of the refugees, who have been in Namibia since 1975, are working or attending school.

Many of them have expressed willingness to return home, while some say they will only go back when peace has returned to Angola.

Rosa Dos Santos, who has been in Namibia for 13 years, is a clerk at a travel agency in Windhoek. She is fluent in English, Afrikaans, Portuguese and many of Namibia’s indigenous languages.

After visiting the Angolan capital of Luanda in Dec. last year, she says she was impressed with what she saw. "Luanda is very beautiful. I had a different picture all together before I left. I was also impressed with the way people care for each other regardless of whether they are a family or not. I am definitely going back, although I am aware that it will take time to get used to the Angolan lifestyle," says Dos Santos.

A recent UNHCR survey reveals that 95 percent of Angolan refugees are willing to return home.

Angola contributed greatly to Namibia’s independence, which it attained in 1990. "I think, the time has come for the refugees to go home and rebuild Angola," says Sakaria Nangolo, a resident of Windhoek. The war did not only leave scars on Angola but it also made Namibians living along the common border felt the brunt, after UNITA rebels, led by Jonas Savimbi, conducted raids, robbing villagers and killing some of them in the process.

The worst attacks occurred between 2000 and 2001 when travellers, including tourists, were ambushed, attacked and killed by suspected rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) on the Trans-Caprivi Highway in Northeastern Namibia.

The unrest led to a dusk-to-dawn curfew which was enforced for almost two years, until the death of Savimbi in Feb. last year. The rebels went on rampage to force the Namibian government to stop aiding the Angolan army, which was using Namibia’s territory to fight UNITA rebels in Southern Angola.

Namibia’s ruling SWAPO and the Angolan government have ties dating back to the era of Namibia’s liberation struggle. Angola was home to SWAPO freedom fighters, from where they fought the South African apartheid regime that was occupying Namibia before independence in 1990.