An estimated 800,000 Angolans have fled their homes or have otherwise been affected by South African aggression against their country, according to relief organisations in Luanda assisting with the problem of displaced persons.
Several hundred thousand inhabitants of the south-eastern and southern provinces of Kuando Kubango and Kunene have fled to the south-western province of Huila to escape South African incursions and the operations of South African-backed UNITA insurgents.
Other refugees from the raids simply move from their villages into the nearby forest, going to the nearest town when they have used up all available supplies, and normally arriving in extremely poor condition, according to the representative in Angola of the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Almeri Bezerra de Mello.
UNICEF is concentrating its efforts in Angola on people displaced or affected by South African attacks. Two forms of aid are being undertaken: * the expansion of existing villages in the central regions of Huambo and Bie to accommodate refugees from the south of Angola, through the provision of additional hospital and school services, housing, food and water supplies. UNICEF is co-operating with the Angolan authorities on these schemes. * in the provinces of Kuando Kubango, Kunene and Huila, which border Namibia, UNICEF is distributing emergency supplies of food and medicine.
UNICEF is also working with the UN High Commission for Refugees in assisting Namibian refugees in Huila and Kwanza Sul provinces.
Thousands of Zambian nationals and Angolan refugees in the western province of Zambia were reported in April to be starving because roads leading to the area had been heavily landmined by South African troops. The South African operation was presumed to be directed against guerillas of SWAPO or the African National Congress, to prevent them infiltrating through to Namibia and ultimately South Africa.
The Lutheran World Information report quoted the refugee secretary of the Catholic Secretariat in Lusaka as saying that there were now 10,000 Angolan refugees in the area whose condition regarding clothes, food and medicine required urgent attention. The landmining, together with recent floods in the area had made travel hazardous, and only helicopter transportation had so far proved effective.
