By Reagan Malumo
KATIMA MULILO
Some 34 Namibian refugees who were in the group that escaped to Botswana with exiled secessionist leader, Mishake Muyongo, returned home last week.
The group fled to Botswana with Muyongo and his cousin former Mafwe chief, Boniface Mamili, in 1999 claiming they were being persecuted, a charge that has been dismissed by the Government.
The refugees were, last week on Thursday, brought back to Namibia in a voluntary tripartite repatriation exercise involving the Namibian Government, officials from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Botswana government.
Family members received the latest batch of returnees comprising of 22 children and 12 adults at the Ngoma Border Post in Namibia.
Some of the returnees brought with them children who were born in Botswana.
This is the first group of Namibians to be repatriated from the Dukwe Refugee Camp in Botswana since the beginning of this year. The last group was repatriated on February 23, last year.
According to UNHCR Protection Clerk for Botswana, Onkemetse Leburu, approximately 1???_?_’???_?’???_???