- Angola today airlifts its first badge of refugees from Zambia's Copperbelt provincial capital of Ndola. The Angolan flight boarded 116 refugees this morning and flew them to Luena, Angola's eastern central province of Moxico. The government of Angola bankrolled the cost of airlifting the refugees.
The refugees arrived home safely, with officials of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Angolan Ministry of Assistance and Social Reinsertion receiving at the airport where they got registered.
According to an IOM statement, the refugees were supplied with food from the UN agency WFP, non- food items such as construction material and farming instruments from UNHCR and mine awareness training and HIV/AIDS information from a partner NGO, "Enxame de Abelhas".
With assistance from Danish government, IOM had been able to hand out cash grant to each returning family to help them fund the last leg of their journey home. However, IOM said it needed US$ 2.5 million to provide returnees with income generating activities, such as agricultural work or the production of construction materials and other goods and services over the next two years.
Two other flights of refugees are scheduled to carry out similar mission today.
The country's more than decade of war had forced thousands of its citizens to flee to other countries. Over 70,000 Angolan refugees have been returned from Zambia since 2003 but several more are still there.
As Angola now is experiencing an economic boom due to peace, a growing oil production and high oil prices, reconstruction and mine clearing are going quickly ahead. However, most rural areas - from which most refugees originate - still have to see investments from the capital, Luanda, where most of the economic boom is experienced.
This new repatriation operation, which is due to run until the end of January, aims to assist some 3,000 Angolans refugees who are currently living in Zambia's northern Copperbelt province and who wish to return home under a joint voluntary repatriation programme run by IOM, UNHCR and the Angolan and Zambia governments.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.