Reluctant returnees: Caprivians face the long way home :: Mmegi Online

Twenty years after they fled from a bloody conflict, crossing crocodile-infested waters to the safety of Botswana, more than 800 Caprivians at Dukwi Refugee Camp are fighting against forcible repatriation to their homeland. Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI has been following the matter over the years

This week, a group of 12 Caprivi elders, representing those who directly witnessed the violent Caprivi Strip separatist conflict of 1998-1999, stood at the doors of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) headquarters for the umpteenth time and once again left without recourse.

SADC, bubbling with resurgent democracies, the region-wide mantra of “open for business” and young leaders, is uncomfortably confronting the long-running disputes that pre-occupied heads of State in the post-colonial period. The Caprivians and their grievances is, unfortunately, a vestige from that period, when civil unrest erupted in several SADC states, following the fall of colonialism.

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