Top UN refugee official ends visit to central Africa, Angola26 August – The head of the United Nations refugee agency has ended his mission to Africa, hailing the achievements of the Angolan repatriation programme while making a strong appeal for more reconstruction in the country's heavily-damaged interior.
Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on the last leg of his journey to Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), visited rural returnee areas in the east of Angola over the weekend, where he witnessed the arrival of a returnee convoy from the DRC amid cheers and dances by the local community.
In Cazombo, the main county town of Moxico province, he was welcomed by the municipality's administrator, who told him, "At the beginning of last year, this municipality was counting 2,000 souls. As of today there are 70,000 people living here."
He also outlined important efforts made by the local administration, as well as local and international aid agencies, to rebuild health centres, rehabilitate water systems and infrastructure, and take care of particularly vulnerable people among those who return - children separated from their families, female-headed households and people with disabilities.
For his part, Mr. Lubbers assured all present that he had asked the central government to do more for rural areas. "I made a plea to the authorities in Luanda to speed up the rehabilitation of infrastructure in these remote areas, which are far away from the capital, so that more people can return home," he said.
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