Lunda norte: The senior protection officer for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Aram Fahim, has confirmed that the institution and its partners will maintain their support for refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the L³vua settlement until December of this year.
According to Angola Press News Agency, Aram Fahim leads a delegation that includes representatives from the United States Embassy in Angola, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the head of the UNHCR office in Lunda Norte. Despite a recent announcement by Ms. Emmanuelle Mitte, the UNHCR representative in Angola, regarding the impending closure of the agency's offices in the country due to a lack of financial resources, Fahim assured that efforts to support the Angolan government in aiding refugees will persist. This commitment is aimed at safeguarding the fundamental rights of refugees, with conditions being established for organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP), World Vision, and the Evangelical Church of the Brothers in Angola (IEIA) to continue their work until December.
The protection officer expressed appreciation for the Angolan government's ongoing support in providing shelter and protection to refugees since May 2017. This support has been crucial for the DRC citizens who fled their homeland due to ethnic and political turmoil. Currently, the L³vua settlement houses over 6,000 refugees from the DRC. These individuals are part of the larger group of 35,000 refugees who arrived in Angola in May 2017, escaping violence in the Kasai region, which had prompted a declaration of a state of emergency. Overall, UNHCR oversees a total of 56,000 refugees of different nationalities in Angola, with the majority originating from the DRC.
