No information on refugee camps in Camacupa in Bie province during 1993-1998 period could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

However, the following recent reports refer to a presence of thousands of internal displaced people (IDP) in the camps around the town of Camacupa.

In its 27 July 2001 report, IRIN wrote the following:

A patch of bare earth dotted with smoking fires has become home to the hundreds of people who arrive each day at the displaced people's camps outside Camacupa in the Angolan province of Bié. Sleeping out in the open during the cold highland nights may be hard but it is nothing new. More than 200,000 people are already living in huts or tents in the camps around Camacupa. People began arriving in large numbers in March, when there was no emergency feeding or health provision in the town.

The IRN report added that both World Food Programme (WFP) and the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) were providing humanitarian assistance to those persons (ibid.).

A 28 July 2001 BBC report stated that "20, 000 people uprooted by the war, live in displaced people's camps outside Camacupa"

Faced with a new and sudden influx of thousands of severely malnourished war displaced persons arriving in Angola's central highland township of Camacupa in the war-ravaged Bié province, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) over the weekend began general food distribution to families in the area (Afrol.com 5 June 2001).

The same source of information added that "the situation came to a head at the end of May, but WFP has been providing food supplies to Camacupa through kitchens run by Catholic non-governmental organization Caritas since September of last year" (ibid.). US-bases Care International and MSF were also involved in food distribution or in therapeutic and feeding centres (Afrol.com 5 June 2001).

Without referring specifically to Camacupa, Médecins sans frontières (MSF); Inter-Church Coalition on Africa (ACCAF); explained that,

At the end of 1998, after the few years of relative peace that followed the Lusaka Agreements [1994] war began again in Angola. Since December 1998, displaced people have fooded into those cities controlled by the government, whilst others have sough refugee in neighbouring countries. This population movement occurred in several waves, each marking the most violence episodes of confrontation between the Angola Armed Forces (FAAA) and Unita (9 Nov. 2000).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Afrol.com. 5 June 2001. "Angola Food Distribution Reaches New War Victims." http://www.afrol.com/netscape_index.htm [Accessed 17 Dec. 2001]

BBC. 28 July 2001. Justine Pearce. "Angola's Tough Survivors." http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_1459000/1459895.stm [Accessed 12 Dec. 20010]

Médecins sans Frontières (MSF); Inter-Church Coalition on Africa (ICCAF). 9 November 2000. Angola: Behind the Façade of 'Normalization' Manipulation, Violence, and Abandoned Population. http://www.web.net/~iccaf/humanrights/angolainfo/angolamedecins1100.htm [Accessed 14 Dec. 2001]

Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa (IRIN-SA). 27 July 2001. "Angola: IRIN Focus Report on Camacupas's IDP Camps." http://www.reliefweb.int [Accessed 12 Dec. 20010

Additional Sources Consulted

Africa Confidential. 1993-1998.

Africa Research Bulletin 1993-1998.

Amnesty International. Amnesty International Reports. 1994-1999.

Country Reports 1994-1999.

IRB Databases.

Jeune Afrique/L'Intelligent. 1993-1998.

Keesing's Record of World Events 1993-1998.

LEXIS/NEXIS.

REFWOWLD.

Resource Centre country file. Angola. 1993-1998.

Internet sites including:

All Africa News.

Amnesty International.

Angola Peace Monitor.

Angola Press News Agency [Luanda].

Human Rights Watch.

Immigration & Nationality Directorate, UK.

Inter-Church Coalition on Africa.

The Inter-African Network for Human Rights.

Mail and Guardian [Johannesburg].

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).

MISNA.

Reliefweb.

UK Immigration and National Directorate.