UN agency helps more Angolan refugees repatriate from DR of Congo

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped nearly 500 Angolan refugees to return from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to their country, a spokesperson for the agency said today.

A convoy took 377 refugees out of the 15,000 hosted in Kisenge, Katanga Province, to Luau in Angola’s eastern Moxico Province last Friday, Jennifer Pagonis told reporters in Geneva.

Another 130 returnees travelled by convoy from Kimpese, Bas Congo Province, to M’baza Congo in northern Angola, she said.

The UNHCR convoys will run twice a week for the rest of the year. UNHCR plans to help 90,000 out of the total of 145,000 Angolan refugees scheduled to be repatriated from neighbouring countries this year, Ms. Pagonis said.

Some 218,000 Angolans have returned home since peace accords signed in April 2002 ended 27 years of war in their country.