The voluntary repatriation program for refugees from Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was resumed on Tuesday, with the departure of 88 people concentrated in the Lôvua settlement, in the Angolan province of Lunda Norte.
According to a note from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to which the Lusa agency had access, the process is being carried out in collaboration with the governments of Angola and RDCongo, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners Aid for the Development of People to People (ADPP), Evangelical Church of the Brothers in Angola (IEIA), Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and World Vision.
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The first group of 88 refugees and dependents left the Lôvua settlement on Tuesday and are due to cross the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday.
UNHCR reports that the first trip will be through the Chicolondo border, and other groups are expected to leave Angola through the Chissanda border.
Later, the refugees and relatives will go to the provinces of Kasai, Kasai Central, Kwilu, Sankuru, Lomami, Lualaba and Kinshasa.
In their areas of origin, the refugees will be received by UNHCR in DR Congo, together with the Democratic Congolese authorities and partners, who are working to create the conditions for their reintegration.
According to UNHCR, to date, around 10% of the population of the Lôvua settlement have shown the intention to return to DRCongo.
With the resumption of voluntary repatriation, more refugees may show an interest in returning. UNHCR is monitoring possible new return intentions,” the document highlights.
In total, the border province of Lunda Norte is home to more than 9,800 refugees giveskasai crisisof which about 7,000 live in the Lôvua settlement, numbers that were part of an initial group of 35,000 people who, in 2017, arrived in the province fleeing acts of violence in the Kasai area, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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This crisis, underlines UNHCR, has led to the declaration of a emergency situation.
“In 2019, due to the improvement of the situation in DRCongo, more than 17,000 of these refugees returned to their country of origin spontaneously, with their own resources. That same year, following an agreement between the governments of Angola, DR Congo and UNHCR, voluntary return, which meant the return of 2,912 people, in an organized way. However, in February 2020, the the operation was finally stoppedfirst due to the poor state of the roads and the bridge over the Kasai River and, later, due to Covid-19, which caused the closure of the borders between the two countries,” the statement recalls.
Source: Observadora
