South Africa: Restoring family links from Angola to Rwanda
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Angolan Red Cross Society (Cruz Vermelha de Angola or CVA) facilitated the transfer of three Rwandan refugee children from the village of Viana, to Luanda, to be reunited with their relatives in Rwanda. The three children aged 12, 11 and 9 lived in the urban refugee community after the death of their parents six years ago.
The parents left Rwanda in 1994 and first found refuge in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then in Angola. The father of the three children died in 2016, while the mother died a year later. The children were admitted to the Viana refugee camp. They found themselves alone, faced unimaginable suffering and were cared for only by caregivers from the Rwandan refugee community.
The ICRC received a request from a Rwandan family member based in Kigali who inquired about the possibility of the ICRC helping to find the three children in Angola and repatriate them to Rwanda.
When family members are separated by a crisis, there is always the fear and uncertainty of not knowing where their loved ones are or how they are doing. This can have long-term negative psychological, health and social effects. For children, suffering is exacerbated by the lack of love and care from their parents.
The ICRC, in partnership with the Angolan Red Cross provides the opportunity to people displaced by armed conflicts and other situations of violence to reunite. Since 2012, the Angolan Red Cross and the ICRC have facilitated the reunification of around 30 children, mainly from Angola to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This family reunification was made possible by the ICRC, UNHCR, IOM, and CVA who all played a pivotal role ranging from caring for the children to securing their reunification process.
ICRC PFL staff Nadege Saal together with the Angola Red Cross Society Secretary General at the airport.
