Johannesburg - Nearly 20,000 refugees fleeing renewed war in Angola have crossed into neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, a United Nations agency said yesterday. The UN Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) said in a report released in Johannesburg that thousands of Angolan refugees were moving into the Congo as fighting between Luanda government troops and UNITA rebels went deeper into northern Angola.
The report, quoting sources at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said a few hundred refugees had also crossed into Zambia, fleeing fighting in central and southern districts of the oil and diamond-rich nation.
The Angolan army claimed yesterday to have recaptured the stragetically important northern town of MbanzaCongo from UNITA.