Congolese migrants flood home, Angola denies claims of brutal crackdown

Angolan President Joao Lourenco is trying to boost investments in his country and wean it off a heavy reliance on oil exports.

Reforming the diamond industry is part of that drive, and "Operation Transparency" in Lunda Norte aims to reduce diamond smuggling and raise more revenues for state coffers from the lucrative sector.

Several Congolese migrants who entered from Angola in recent days said the authorities there had given them an Oct. 15 deadline to leave. Border guard officials said the Angolan operation began on Oct. 1.

According to an internal DGM document seen by Reuters, 200,000 people crossed into Kasai region from Angola in the first 12 days of October.

Border officials believe the true figure is higher because people also cross through the bush rather than checkpoints.

The need to resettle so many people threatens to further destabilise Kasai, a region which saw widespread violence involving armed groups and government forces in 2016 and 2017.

Security sources in DRC and Angola have already said they are concerned about heightened tensions in the area in the run-up to Congolese elections in December.

A Reuters reporter in the Congolese border town of Kamako saw thousands of people making their way on foot and in trucks along the red dirt road to Tshikapa, the provincial capital of Kasai located some 50 km to the north.

Exhausted men and women rested by the side of the road, washed in a river or picked fruit from giant mango trees to feed themselves on a journey that lasts up to a week.

Many carried household belongings on their head, including plastic chairs, mattresses, animals and even ovens. Some said they also had diamonds in their possession.