Lusaka - Zambia has closed a refugee camp in the eastern part of the country after refugees, mainly from neighbouring Angola, opted to return home, an official told reporters on Wednesday.
"We had to close the camp because most of the refugees decided to be repatriated home," said Zambia's commissioner of refugees, Jacob Mphepo.
Ukwimi refugee camp, which sheltered 2 217 former fighters belonging to the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) closed last week, said Mphepo.
A total of 283 refugees who remained at Ukwimi have been relocated to other bigger camps in the western and north-western parts of Zambia where hundreds of other refugees were still living.
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"Buildings such as schools and hospitals that were built for refugees will be given to the local community as a gesture for their hospitality to the refugees," Mphepo said.
Ukwimi camp, which sheltered about 2 500 ex-combatants from Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi's rebel groups, is one of the oldest camps in Zambia.
It was closed in 1992 after Mozambican refugees returned home when the civil war ended there, but reopened to shelter rebels who had given up fighting and fled into Zambia from war-torn neighbouring countries.
Zambia hosts about 300 000, refugees mainly from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Angola emerged from 27 years of civil war in April 2002 that claimed an estimated 500 000 lives.
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