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JOHANNESBURG, June 18 (AFP) - An end to civil wars in Angola and Sierra Leone will allow more than half a million refugees to return home, and it will improve the chances of peace in neighbouring states on the continent, a top UN official said Tuesday.

Kamel Morjane, assistant to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said an end to 27 years of civil war in Angola will prompt nearly half a million refugees to return home and improve the chances for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"It is our view that peace in Angola is irreversible ... and if there is peace in Angola, there is more chance of peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Morjane said ahead of a UN-organised celebration of World Refugee Day, to be held Thursday.

A four-year civil war in the DRC has forced some 209,000 Congolese to seek refuge elsewhere on the continent, and those who made Johannesburg their home on Tuesday gave a riveting drum and dance performance in the city centre.

The end to Sierra Leone's civil war in January will allow some 166,000 refugees from the country to be repatriated, the UNHCR said in a fact sheet on Africa, adding that it would be a "positive turn for the region."

Morjane was in South Africa after visiting Mozambique and Angola, where he was on a high-level mission to prepare for the repatriation of some 450,000 refugees from the Great Lakes region to Angola.

"They are very positive, wanting and hoping to go back as soon as possible. But given their previous experience they are waiting before taking a decision," he said.

Morjane said some 15,000 refugees had spontaneously returned to the southwest African country without any assistance from the UNHCR.

By December, roughly 80,000 Angolan refugees are expected to have returned, Morjane said, warning that the country's infrastructure and social services were inadequate to cope with their needs.

"Another serious problem in Angola is landmines, and if people go back they need to plant in their fields."

In Angola four million internally displaced people, according to government figures, are already struggling to make a living in a country devastated by decades of conflict.

Morjane said the voluntary repatriation of refugees, including 55,000 former rebel combatants, was expected to take place over two years.

This move would benefit Zambia, which was sheltering more than 235,000 Angolan refugees out of its total of nearly 300,000 at the end of March, according to the UNHCR.

Zambia, threatened by famine and hit by HIV/AIDS, hosts the highest number of refugees in southern Africa.

Africa as a whole was home to 4.2 million "people of concern" out of 20 million worldwide in January 2002, the UNHCR said.

This group included 3.3 million refugees, 422,000 internally displaced people and 267,000 former refugees.

The figures were an improvement on January 2001, when Africa had 5.3 million "people of concern", of whom 3.6 million were refugees.

The UNHCR said five of the 10 largest returns to home countries by refugees were in Africa.

The countries to which they were repatriated, as steps towards peace took hold on the continent, were Sierra Leone, Somalia, Eritrea, Burundi and Rwanda.

The African countries from which most people have fled were Burundi (with 540,000), followed by Angola, Sudan, the DRC, Eritrea, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Ethiopia. - Nampa-AFP

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