Namibia: Drought Displaced Angolans Face Human Rights Abuses

What the report says

Amnesty International has warned that Angolan women and children displaced by drought into Namibia are facing serious human rights abuses because there are few safe, legal ways for people forced across borders by climate shocks to regularize their status. The warning appears in a new report, published on 2 September 2026 and covered by AllAfrica, which focuses on drought-driven movement from southern Angola into Namibia.

The report says recurring drought, worsened by El Niño and long-running structural vulnerabilities, has hit southern Angola’s Cunene, Huíla and Namibe provinces especially hard. According to Amnesty, families have crossed into Namibia in search of food, water, grazing land, healthcare, work and family support, but many arrive without documents and end up in irregular status. The organization says this leaves them exposed to fear of arrest, detention and deportation, and can discourage people from seeking medical care or other basic services.

Amnesty also raised concerns about Namibia’s response, saying current immigration and protection laws do not adequately address climate-related displacement. It cited cases of group returns, including an incident it said it observed on 4 June 2025 in Opuwo involving about 40 Angolans, among them women and children, who were taken to the Ruacana border without individual screening. The report argues this may conflict with rules against collective expulsion and refoulement.

The findings also describe poor housing and sanitation conditions for some displaced Angolans in northern Namibia, alongside higher hospital fees for undocumented patients. Amnesty called on Namibian authorities to provide registration, documentation and individual review before deportations, and urged broader international support for drought adaptation and protection measures in Angola and Namibia.