Angola Pushes Out Migrants, Destabilizing Region

Starting on October, the Angolan government and mobs of Angolan citizens began to forcibly expel Congolese residents from the country's northern regions under the guise of an anti-corruption operation.

Lucapa, a city in northern Angola, has seen an influx of migrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent years. Migrants arrive in Lucapa for various reasons, but for the Congolese, the two largest draws are the relative security and economic opportunities provided by northern Angola's diamond mines.

As a facet of their Operation Transparency, the Angolan government claims that the expulsion of irregular migrants, the majority of whom are Congolese, is a necessary measure for the cleaning up of the nation's notoriously corrupt mining sector. According to the UN, as of October 26, Angola has expelled 330,000 Congolese, 80,000 of whom are children.

Violence has plagued the removals. Though the government claims that the removals have been peaceful, eyewitness reports reveal widespread violence directed at the Congolese.  The Congolese living in northern Angola belong to the Pende ethnic group, but the majority of the Angolans living in the area are Tchokwe. The perceived arrogance and economic good fortune of the Congolese migrants exacerbated the ethnic tensions present in the region.

Pedro Sebastiao, minister of state for presidential security and head of Operation Transparency, said, “They are completely false, the claims of massacres, abuses, and violations committed by the authorities or by Angolan people.” The Angolan government claims that the Congolese migrants are returning home voluntarily and that only one person has died—in a traffic accident. Angola denied accusations of massacres and abuses.

The government's claims, however, have been called into question because Reuters interviewed an Angolan security source with knowledge of the operation, who claimed between ten and 14 had been killed. Congolese who fled Lucapa said the number was much higher. Locals reported that a group of approximately 200 Congolese who were resisting removal armed themselves and battled with a mob of Angolans and police.

According to the EastAfrican, the situation is not much better across the border. Reports of DRC border forces extorting the migrants have emerged in recent weeks. According to Ravina Shamdasani, the UN human rights spokeswoman, “DRC security forces allegedly have subjected migrants to extortion and illegal taxation upon arrival in the town of Kamako. Given the continued presence of armed groups that are split along ethnic lines in the Kasais, we are warning of the risk of inter-communal violence if the situation is not handled carefully by the authorities.”

The UN agency is concerned that the migrant crisis will destabilize Kasai. In 2016 and 2017, ethnic conflicts in Kasai killed about 5,000 and displaced nearly 1.5 million.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has come out and said that expulsion of the Congolese is unlawful because “international law and the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights forbid the mass expulsion of non-nationals without individual assessment or other due process guarantees."

Lacupa, a city in northern Angola, has “seen an influx of migrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent years.” Wikimedia Commons.