UN agency steps up efforts to assist Angolan refugees to return home

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today it is stepping up efforts to assist displaced Angolans to relocate home after a 27-year civil war and expects 12,000 returnees from neighbouring countries by week's end.

The refugees - returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia and Namibia - will spend the first few days back in Angola in reception centres, where they receive landmine awareness training and information on HIV/AIDS. They will also receive some food, a construction and basic domestic supplies.

"UNHCR is looking at gradually increasing the pace of returns as more areas become open for return in Angola. A total of 13 communes are now open for organized return," a spokesman for the agency, Kris Janowski, said in Geneva.

Mr. Janowski added that many other communes were still out of reach because of bad roads, broken bridges or the presence of landmines. UNHCR staff is currently visiting several provinces to identify the next steps required to open up new corridors of return in the next one to two months.

An estimated 4.5 million Angolans lost their homes and some 450,000 others were driven into neighbouring countries before the war ended last year. UNHCR has appealed for $29 million for the Angola operation and has received just over $15 million thus far.