Luanda – At least 30 Angolans arrived in Luanda from Poland in the early hours of Monday, on a repatriation flight organized by the Angolan Government.
These are mostly students who left Ukraine due to the Russian invasion of that country.
At 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, the returnees were received by the Minister of State and Chief of the Military Affairs Office of the President of the Republic, Francisco Furtado, among other individuals.
According to the implementation of the contingency plan for the evacuation of Angolan citizens, who took refuge in Poland after leaving Ukraine, the Government of Angola created conditions for the reception of all nationals affected by the conflict.
Last Saturday, 277 Angolan citizens had arrived in Warsaw, according to a note from the Angolan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mirex), released Sunday in Luanda.
The document added that the Angolan government then mobilized an air vehicle, a Boeing Triple Seven, to bring all the aforementioned citizens to Angola, including national and foreign spouses.
Of the 277 citizens welcomed in Warsaw, the source reads that thirty citizens accepted to embark for Angola, and the rest decided to remain in Poland at their own risk, which exempts the Angolan State from responsibility for these citizens, except possible consular support.
As part of the pan-Africanist vocation of the Republic of Angola, the government agreed to transport citizens from other countries of the African continent on the same plane.
Conditions created to accommodate compatriots
At 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, said that the conditions had been created to accommodate the compatriots, who, initially, will stay for seven days in a hotel in the capital, Luanda.
He also said that during this period they will have support from various specialists such as psychologists, psychiatrists and nutritionists.
In Ukraine for nine years, Alírio Manteiga, graduated in Medicine, said that they had had difficult days to reach the border with Poland, having congratulated the Angolan Government for what he considered "prompt and effective intervention".
Fénica Tomás, also a student, thanked the Angolan authorities for returning to the country and appealed to the parties for an immediate ceasefire, for the good of all.
According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR more than 1,500 people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion on 24 February, bound for border countries, namely Poland, Romania and Moldova.
The war in Ukraine has already resulted in the deaths of at least 500 people.
