Congolese miners expelled from Angola sheltered in Tshikapa, Province of Kasai - Occidental.
Credit: UN DPI |
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Thousand of illegal Congolese miners expelled from Angola remain, in early 2005, trapped in the border regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to the Ministry for Solidarity and Humanitarian Affairs, 12,000 expelled Congolese nationals are currently being sheltered in Tshikapa, 50 km from the DRC's southern border with Angola in the province of Kasai-Occidental.
Humanitarian assistance was withdrawn five months ago and Louis Ibonge, who is responsible for refugees and internally displaced persons at the Ministry, feels the miners are caught in limbo.
"I can't reach my home in Kananga, as I don't have enough money since I was expelled from Angola with my fellow countrymen on 12 April 2004, but I manage to get by, selling chickens," said Edouard Mwamba, a father of two.
Non-governmental organizations put the total number of Congolese miners expelled from Angola at around 80,000.
During their journey home, expelled Congolese miners reported being robbed and abused by police, the army and even Angolan civilians.
Credit: IRC |
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"There are many of us, expelled miners, stuck in Tshikapa with no possibility of getting home, living on people's charity and begging on the streets. Some even started digging for diamonds again near the border with Angola, but on the Congolese side," he commented.
Tito Ndombi, the public information officer for the medical NGO, Médecins sans Frontières-Belgium (MSF-B), explained: "the General Directorate of Migration's census for the third wave of arrivals [from 2 to 13 May 2004] registered 28,856 expelled miners … 50 percent made it home, to their families in Kinshasa, the capital. Others went back to Angola."
The 12,000 expelled miners in Tshikapa are thought to come from the town originally, and are therefore not displaced. Accordingly, humanitarian organizations on site, including MSF-B and Caritas, suspended assistance, which had consisted mainly of medical services and distributions of food and non-food items.
"We received humanitarian assistance for a while, but we are still waiting for the substantial support the government promised, because we lost everything when we were expelled empty-handed from Angola," said Mwamba.
The miners are often in a state of exhaustion when they reach the DRC. Some are wounded. "They said they were robbed, systematically searched by the police, and subjected to rape and violence from the Angolan population, as well as the police and the army," said Ndombi.
The expulsion of illegal Congolese which started in early 2004 was stopped last June in the same year, after talks between the Angolan and Congolese governments. Angola had planned to expel 35,000 illegal Congolese from its northern mining region, formerly occupied by the UNITA rebel movement, according to the DRC ambassador to Angola, Joa Mawete, who noted that 90,000 people from other countries, including South Africa, Mauritius, Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Albania were in the process of being expelled from Angola.
"The Angolan government, after restoring peace, and being eager for economic recovery, wants to recover its control over the diamond-producing regions," said Mawete.
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