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In 1996, UNICEF estimated that 1.2 million people in Angola were internally displaced, with over 450,000 Angolan refugees in neighbouring countries and a total of over 3 million people dependent upon humanitarian assistance for their survival (UNICEF, 1996). The outbreak of Angolas Fourth War in 1998 led to a dramatic increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) with UNHCR considering approximately 2 million people to be internally displaced in 2001 (NRC, 2001 http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Angola). At the end of the war in April 2002, the total number of IDPs was estimated to be more than 4 million and the number of refugees in neighbouring countries exceeding 0.5 million.
IDPs, referred to as deslocados in Angola, usually followed one of two settlement patterns in Angola: they were settled in government-run centres of a transitory or permanent basis, or they became self-settled in nearby towns or cities. While large numbers of IDPs are returning home following the ceasefire in 2002, a substantial number remain displaced throughout the country.
Living conditions in the IDP centres are difficult. They are often situated in rural areas, described by an Angolan journalist as desolate landscapes (NRC, 2001 http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Angola), removed from major transport routes and more easily controlled by the government. Huts are traditionally constructed from wood and mud but, since there is usually no adequate roofing material available, the huts do not provide adequate shelter from the wind, cold nor the heavy downpours which can last for up to eight months of the year. Close proximity to neighbours result in infectious diseases being passed on quickly. A report from an Angolan NGO also highlights the difficult and slow adaptation to the new physical environment in which the deslocados find themselves: people who were accustomed to having their own houses and living in kimbus (household of an extended family, sometimes consisting of up to 20 huts) with their relatives found it strenuous to live in such close proximity to people who were strangers to them (Andrade, 2001). In centres where the deslocados came from the same area and therefore knew each other prior to displacement, it is possible to create a sense of cohesion and communal support. This is largely absent in centres where the deslocados came from many different municipalities and where people were less willing to assist each other and more inclined to think primarily of the well-being of their own immediate families.
Economic survival is a constant concern and high priority in IDP centres. The deslocados usually do not have access to farming land around the centres, and are thus deprived of their previous methods of subsistence through agriculture and animal husbandry. Many IDP centres were largely dependent on the food provisions of the World Food Programme (WFP), consisting of 10 kg maize meal, 1.2 kg beans, 0.75 kg cooking oil and 0,15 kg salt per person per month, which is barely enough to sustain a person for two weeks. Additional sources of income thus have to be sought and a combination of kinship exchange, petty-commodity production, collecting and selling firewood, and food and beverage preparation are employed. Women also labour in the fields of local farmers in exchange for food, usually paid in the form of small quantities of maize. Assets such as emergency items and food provided by aid agencies are routinely exchanged or sold as a coping strategy of the population, and it is common to see WFP sacks of maize meal in the marketplaces of surrounding villages after food distribution has taken place in an area (NRC, 2001 http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Angola). Despite these initiatives, people live in a state of acute poverty, unable to cope with disruptions to their survival strategies through illness or other events. Households headed by elderly widows seemed particularly vulnerable and fragile with high rates of malnutrition and visible destitution common among them (OCHA, 2001).
An additional hardship in the lives of the deslocados residing in the centres is personal security. Relations with local residents around the centres are at times strained over matters such as the collection of firewood, with residents claiming that deslocados strip their surrounding countryside of suitable firewood at a rapid rate which forces them to walk greater distances than before. Incidents of women deslocados being raped by locals while collecting firewood have been reported, for instance, near centres in Huila province in July 2000. Local bandidos [criminals, thieves] may also lay in wait for deslocados after food distribution has taken place in an area, ambushing them and stealing their goods (NRC, 2001 http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/IdpProjectDb/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Angola). The constant threat of attacks from UNITA forces even in areas supposedly designated as safe havens was a further concern for deslocados living in IDP centres during the conflict.
Following the signing of the ceasefire in April 2002, many deslocados started to leave the IDP centres and return to their home areas on their own accord, rather than waiting for a co-ordinated campaign. This increased towards the harvesting season later on in the year with an estimated 1.1 million deslocados making their way home by the end of 2002 (Angola Peace Monitor: http://www.actsa.org/Angola/apm/apm0901.htm). By June 2003, an estimated 2.5 million IDPs had returned home (Global IDP Project: http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Angola). Despite this spontaneous return, 1.4 million people remain displaced within Angola with approximately 300,000 living in IDP centres around the country. Conditions for return remain difficult with little assistance being provided to help the IDPs make the transition of moving to areas that were devastated during the conflict. There have also been reports of forced and coerced return by government forces to areas that have not yet been de-mined and where no medical and educational facilities exist (Human Rights Watch, website: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/angola0803/angola0803.pdf).
The lives of the self-settled deslocados in urban areas are challenging in different ways. In many towns the number of displaced far outnumbers the indigenous population. Great variations exist in the economic circumstances between different groups of deslocados, the single most important factor being whether or not the arriving deslocados have kinship networks in the town that they can draw upon for initial support (Andrade, 2001). However, not even highly effective kinship networks can cope with the massive levels of displacement that have occurred since 1992, and host households quickly found themselves depleted if they were expected to cope with large numbers of additional people:
With the majority of the Angolan population living at, or below, the poverty line resources in most households are limited and can be extended very little without creating further hardship. During the past eight years, agencies estimate that a majority of host households have become destitute as scarce assets are shared among larger numbers of people (United Nations Security Council, 2000: 10).
The same problem, of lack of access to farming land, is faced by self-settled IDPs as those people settled in centres. In urban areas the peripheral areas around the towns are all owned and farmed by residents who rely on the produce for their livelihood. However, other opportunities and possibilities exist for those making a living in urban areas, some of which have already been mentioned. It has been widely suggested that those IDPs most likely to attempt life in urban areas are those who are best educated and most resourceful, leaving behind the more vulnerable and less influential people in the centres (Tvedten, 1997). Former community leaders and intellectuals, for instance, migrated to the towns in order to make a living for themselves there. Despite this, however, many deslocados found it very difficult to survive in urban centres, the competition in the informal trading market already being strained to maximum capacity. Some worked long hours in order to make enough for just one bread roll and a teabag at the end of the day, living constantly and precariously on the brink of destitution. Others who were not able to work lived on the streets of Luanda, Huambo, Lubango and other smaller towns, surviving on begging and stealing what little they can get. Many of the self-settled deslocados have also made the journey back home to their farming areas.
It is not only armed conflict that has contributed to displacement in Angola. Communities have been repeatedly affected by flooding in various parts of the country, predominantly in the north. For instance, in March 2005 flooding in Kwanza Norte left 10,000 people without shelter and has created conditions likely to lead to malaria and diarrhoeal diseases (Reliefweb: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/MMQD-6ALQ6U?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=ACOS-635NGV). In the southern provinces of Kunene and Namibe drought led both to migration as well as to conflict over water between groups in 2004 (IRIN News: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43187). While little international attention focuses on these causes of displacement in Angola, they present serious humanitarian challenges to communities weakened by decades of war and by the lack of infrastructure.
Almost 40 years of conflict have resulted in large population movements from Angola to other countries. The largest exile communities are presently to be found in neighbouring Zambia, the DRC, Namibia, the Republic of Congo and South Africa. The total number of Angolan refugees is estimated to be over 0.5 million, with Zambia hosting approximately 211,000, the DRC hosting an estimated 193,000, and Namibia with about 24,000 of the refugees.
The Angolan refugees in Zambia have been the focus of research over the past three decades. The movement of Angolan refugees into Zambia started in the 1960s (Barrett, 1998). The majority of the refugees settled in rural areas independent of international and national agencies and gradually integrated into Zambian villages, as they were viewed as kin or distant relatives by their hosts (Hansen, 1979). The majority of self-settled refugees now consider Zambia their home and did not plan returning home to Angola once the war was over (Hansen, 1990). The successful integration of Angolan refugees in north-western Zambia has been heralded as a success story by refugee agencies who saw this process as a possible model for resolving other long-term protracted refugee situations.
The Angolans who were not self-settled were accommodated in organised settlements, for instance in the Meheba settlement in north-western Zambia (Barrettt, 1998). For these refugees it has not been possible to forge new Zambian-Angolan identities and their attitude towards possible repatriation to Angola, once peace is established, is more complex, wishing to be repatriated through UN-organised mass repatriation when judged appropriate (Barrett, 1998).
The UNHCR launched its two-year repatriation programme of Angolan refugees from neighbouring countries in June 2003 with a convoy of 543 refugees leaving the DRC for Angola. The Angola Peace Monitor reports that the refugees were given a warm welcome in the reception centres (website: http://www.actsa.org/Angola/apm/apm0811.htm). The refugees were provided with reintegration packages (which include blankets and basic supplies for 3 months) and also received mine-awareness education and information about HIV/AIDS. Repatriation of refugees in Namibia and Zambia also started in July 2003.
By August 2003, agencies estimated that approximately 130,000 refugees had returned of their own accord since the signing of the peace agreement, predominantly to the provinces of Cuando Cubango, Moxico, Uige and Zaire. A continuing concern is the lack of basic standards for water, health, schooling and the presence of local administration in areas to which refugees are returning. A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch stated that while most IDPs and refugees have now returned home or have decided to stay in the host communities, many experience difficulties in accessing identity documents which provide them with the right to work, to vote and to an education. ( http://hrw.org/reports/2005/angola0305/angola0305.pdf). HRW suggests that three years after peace had arrived, many displaced Angolans continue to suffer.
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