Luanda - Thousands of Angolans are crossing the Kavango river into the north of neighbouring Namibia to escape their country's bloody civil war, United Nations officials said on Monday.
The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said the refugees were "penniless, exhausted and starving" on arrival in temporary UN-run camps along the Kavango, and warned that the number of refugees in northern Namibia could rise to about 15 000 by the end of next month.
The WFP said it had launched a $500 000 (about R3,45-million) emergency effort to provide food at the Namibian town of Osire, where many of the refugees are taken after arriving in the temporary camps.
A further $700 000 (about R4,83-million) were needed to pay for food supplies over the coming six months, the United Nations agency said.
Last week, the Angolan army reported that fighting had intensified in most parts of the south between government forces and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita).
Unita rebels have battled with the governing People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) with little respite since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Most of the refugees are from Angola's south-eastern Kwando-Kubango province, but some are Namibians fleeing villages along the Kavango.
More than 50 Namibian civilians have been killed in the border area since Windhoek gave permission in December for the Angolan army to use Namibian territory as a springboard for attacks on Unita rebels in southern Angola.
Most of the attacks have been blamed on Unita.
The lack of farm land in the Osire region means the refugees have very little chance of finding work, although some are employed on local farms at very low wages. - Sapa-AFP