Angola: Refugees Return to War-Devastated Angola

Refugees repatriating to Angola are returning to a skeleton of a country. Nearly 30 years of brutal civil war reduced most of Angola's homes, schools, hospitals, places of worship, markets, roads, bridges, and commercial and government buildings to rubble. The war also rendered useless hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile agricultural land and countless miles of fish-abundant rivers with millions of landmines and unexploded ordnance, nearly all of which remain in place today. The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) conducted an extensive three-week site visit to Zambia and Angola during November 2003 to examine the repatriation and reintegration of Angolan refugees. As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees pauses for the onset of seasonal rains after phase one of the repatriation program - the agency plans to resume facilitating refugee return in April 2004 - USCR offers timely findings and recommendations on the challenges Angolan refugee returnees face as they attempt to restart their lives in their currently peaceful, but war-devastated homeland.