Rights Group: Alleged Angolan Traffickers Held in “Inhuman Conditions”

Democratic Republic of Congo nationals accused of diamond trafficking in Angola are being held in “inhuman conditions” in Angolan jails, according to a claim by DRC non-governmental organization Voices without Voices.

The human rights group said it was concerned for the lives of those “detained under inhuman conditions in the prisons of the Angolan security services” and also denounced the forced repatriation of DRC nationals.

”Some 10,000 Congolese living in the diamond-producing zones in Angola's northern provinces were forcibly returned to the DRC in December and January,” it said.

The group claimed police and troops “in collaboration with mobs of furious civilians who could no longer stand having the Congolese living among them” carried out the repatriations.

The group urged the Kinshasa government to intervene with Angolan authorities to help its citizens.

Senior Angolan Foreign Ministry official Arcanjo Maria do Nascimento said he was not aware of any problem. "We have no report from the DRC government about this situation," he said, adding that operations against diamond smugglers were the army’s responsibility.

General Egidio de Sousa, in charge of fighting diamond smuggling, said: “In this operation, the responsibility of the military is to arrest everybody, Angolan or foreign, who is exploiting the country's diamonds illegally, and to seize the material used.”

He added “the foreigners arrested have been handed over to the immigration services for repatriation to their countries of origin”.

According to official figures, around 700 diamond traffickers, including 334 foreigners, have been arrested since December in the central province of Bie in a huge sweep the army has been carrying out.

The government says that of an estimated 290,000 diamond traffickers in the country, around 90,000 are thought to be foreigners, mostly from the DRC, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone.