Angola
and DRC Suspend Deportation
The
Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC and Angola have agreed to
suspend a wave of deportations that has seen thousands of
foreign nationals expelled.
Congo's Information Minister, Lambert Mende, confirmed the
decision, seen as an end to the wave of expulsions from the two
countries in recent months.
Angola said that Congolese authorities had in recent days
deported more than 20,000 Angolans living in Congo in
retaliation for Angola's expulsion of illegal Congolese diamond
miners.
Lambert Mende said an agreement had been reached after
high-level talks between the two Central African neighbours in
Congo's capital, Kinshasa.
Angola has regularly deported Congolese miners from its
territory in recent years in round-ups that humanitarian
agencies say have been marked by widespread human rights abuses,
including rapes, beatings and looting.
Congo began forcibly expelling Angolans mainly from its western
Bas-Congo province several weeks ago and many of them were
refugees from Angola’s 27 years civil war.
NAN/Qasim/Ahaziah
