CHAPTER II
ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES IN AFRICA
4. General Developments
73. The number of persons in Africa who became of concern to UNHCR in the course of 1978, as opposed to those who were already of concern to the Office, was very substantial. Areas and countries affected included the Horn of Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Sudan, Zaire and Zambia. UNHCR naturally continued to provide assistance to existing beneficiaries, and in addition it is worthy of note that the programme of assistance to displaced persons in Mozambique was phased out at the end of 1977, and that the United Nations Programme of Humanitarian Assistance in Angola was virtually completed in 1978.
74. Events in the Horn of Africa in the early part of 1978 resulted in requests from Governments in the region for assistance for the uprooted. UNHCR, following consultations with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), drew up programmes of humanitarian assistance for refugees and displaced persons in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. UNHCR then appealed to the international community for an amount of some $12,150,000 to finance these programmes. Subsequently, the Economic and Social Council, by resolution 1978/39 of 1 August 1978, inter alia, invited the High Commissioner "to continue to intensify humanitarian assistance to the refugees and displaced persons in the region", and requested him "to include in his annual report to the Council at its second regular session, 1979, information regarding the steps... taken to implement the ... resolution".
resolution". Details will be found under the country headings below.
75. Also in 1978, UNHCR began an operation under its Special Programme to assist with the voluntary repatriation of Zairians, mainly from Angola, who wished to take advantage of the terms of an amnesty decreed by the President of Zaire in the middle of the year.
The operation, which continues in 1979, was costed at $11,375,000 in cash, plus 13,500 metric tons of food valued at $7,715,000, and was the subject of a separate appeal.
76.
Sizeable groups of refugees to whom UNHCR continued to provide assistance under the General Programmes during the period under review were, as previously, Angolans in Zaire, Ethiopians in Sudan and refugees from Burundi in the United Republic of Tanzania, in addition to Zairians remaining in Angola. The year under review also saw the continuing arrival in various countries of southern Africa of refugees from Namibia and Zimbabwe, and of refugee students from South Africa. Pursuant to the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, UNHCR also has continued to channel certain measures of assistance to refugees from colonial territories through national liberation movements recognized by the OAU.
77. Table 1 of annex II indicates that expenditures under UNHCR's General Programmes in Africa in 1978 totalled over $26.5 million. Of this total a little over $23 million was devoted to local settlement, mainly in agriculture, and it is gratifying to be able to report that in this domain certain projects have been phased out or are planned to be phased out in the course of 1979 or 1980. Expenditures under the Special Programmes totalled over $27.5 million, of which the greater part (over $20 million) was again for assistance towards local settlement. In addition, some $1.8 million were made available from the Refugee Education Account and an amount of $200,000 was provided from the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa for assistance to individual refugees.