There are various communities of Angolans in Namibia.

Migration history

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

are neighbours, there has historically been a great deal of cross-border movements between the two countries. There were formerly large numbers of immigrants from southeast Angola at Mangarangandja and Sarasungu, east of

Rundu Rundu is the capital and largest city of the Kavango-East Region in northern Namibia. It lies on the border with Angola on the banks of the Kavango River about above sea level. Rundu's population is growing rapidly. The 2001 census counted 36,9 ...

along the

Okavango River The Okavango River (formerly spelled Okovango or Okovanggo), Also known as the Cubango River, is a river in southwest Africa. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, running southeastward for . It begins at an elevation of in ...

; however, they were relocated to Kaisosi and Kehemu in the 1970s. These early migrants tend to identify themselves as "Nyemba". Many early migrants were of

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...

ethnicity, an ethnic group found on both sides of the border. In 1989, as Namibia prepared to form a new independent government and Namibians in self-imposed exile in Angola returned to their homeland, hundreds of Angolans, including Angolans of Portuguese descent, came along with them, fleeing renewed fighting in the

Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...

. The number of Angolan refugees had grown to 2,069 by 1996 and to 7,612 by 1999. Roughly 2,300 of those lived at

Kahenge Kahenge is a village in the Kavango West Region of northern Namibia. It is located west of Rundu and is the administrative centre of the Kahenge Constituency.

in the border area, with another 5,000 at

Osire Osire is a refugee camp in central Namibia, situated 200 km north of the capital Windhoek next to the main road C30 from Gobabis to Otjiwarongo. It was established in 1992 to accommodate refugees from Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the ...

near

Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo ( hz, beautiful place) is a city of 28,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital of Otjozondjupa. Otjiwarongo is situated in c ...

in central Namibia. Efforts that year by the Namibian government to move newly-arriving refugees away from the border area to Osire camps were not well received; new arrivals preferred to remain in areas where they had familial and ethnic ties, despite the danger of attack from Angola and the poor facilities in the camp at Kahenge. At the peak in 2001, statistics of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

(UNHCR) showed 30,881 Angolan refugees in the country. Between January and July 2004, 7,035 Angolans who had taken refuge in Namibia during the

had returned to Angola; the UNHCR aimed to repatriate a total of 14,000 that year. By 2005, the number of Angolan refugees remaining in the country had dropped sharply to 4,666 people. Though even during the period of conflict, the border remained fairly permeable, the return of peace saw an increase in border crossings. Between 1999 and 2003, the number of foreign citizens arriving from Angola at the

Oshikango Oshikango is a former village in northern Namibia and since 2004 part of the town of Helao Nafidi, although it still maintained its own village council for a number of years. ''Oshikango'' is still the name of the border post with Angola and the ...

border post nearly doubled from 143,992 to 267,504. The flow of Angolans into Namibia is much larger than the reverse flow of Namibians into Angola. Most cross the border on business or for visiting family members for short-term trips; only about 9% of these border-crossers stay in Namibia longer than six months. Some young labour migrants also cross the border from Angola into Namibia for temporary or seasonal work, especially on Namibian farms.

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Migration history

See also

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Further reading