Angolan Refugees

Thousands of refugees escaping the renewed conflict in southern Angola are streaming into northern Namibia. Some 8,000 refugees have already crossed the border since December, and a total of 12,000 is expected. Camp facilities are already overburdened. The Namibian Red Cross and the International Federation are working with the UNHCR, and need immediate donor support to provide urgently needed help. The majority of the refugees are women and young children. The security situation is getting worse along the border, with reports of shooting incidents and attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers. Two new transit camps are being set up and the Osire camp, first established in 1992 to accommodate 2,000 refugees, is housing nearly four times that number. With as many as 100 more people arriving every day, sanitary conditions in the camp are poor, tents are overcrowded and there is a lack of water and health facilities to meet the immediate and urgent demand. The British Red Cross and DFID provided 700 tents which recently arrived in Windhoek. Some of them have been immediately erected to host the new refugees.
"Should the influx continue, an urgent need of increasing the geographical capacity of the Osire camp will be seen as a vital priority and necessity," Richard HunlÚdÚ, team leader for the southern Africa region.