When Refugees Become Returnees
Cazombo is a rapidly expanding town situated some 200km from the border of Zambia in Moxico Province, eastern Angola. Some 1,500 people each week are returning from Zambia, some of whom have been there for over 20 years.
One such returnee family is the Ojeniya's, a husband and wife with four children aged from two to seven years old. They fled to Zambia in 2000 due to the heavy fighting around Cazombo, and only returned at the end of August 2003 after three years in a Zambian refugee camp called Meheba. MAG and AAR provided Mine Risk Reduction Education in the Meheba camp in 2003, teaching people to recognise and manage the dangers of mines and ordnance that they would face returning home to Angola.They have returned just in time to begin planting crops such as cassava and manioc before the rainy season begins in late 2003, but until then are dependent on food aid and what they can collect from the local bush.
The Ojeniya family
They decided to set up a small home about two kilometres north of Cazombo. Just a few days after returning Maria found a mortar next to their house while planting cassava. Two days later her husband, Adolfo left one of the well-used paths in the nearby bush in order to go and set traps for animals. He spotted a metal object that had been buried in the sandy ground but had become partially uncovered. When MAG Community Liaison (CL) workers visited a week later he told them what he had seen and led them into the bush. The CL staff identified the item as a mine, and placed marking tape around the area to warn people. The following day a Technical Assessment Team visited the site, and was able to identify the mines as two TM-57 anti-tank mines stacked on top of each other. Further along the path was another cache of Rocket Propelled Grenades.
The team leader points out a pile of stacked anti-tank mines
MAG's Technical Advisor determined that the threat to the local community was immediate and required a rapid response. The following day, the Mine Action Team deployed to the site and during the day identified nine separate caches of mines, mortars, Rocket Propelled Grenades and other munitions.
The MRE training that the family had received, from AAR Japan in Meheba, and the regular visits of MAG's Community Liaison Team combined with its ability to provide an immediate technical response meant that in total over 70 mines and items of UXO were removed from this location. The immediate and effective response to this task will help build confidence with the local population and has enabled the Ojeniya family and several hundred others to continue using the area safely in order to access vital resources such as food and firewood.
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