wfn.org | Angola: Worsening humanitarian crisis as war returns

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF concerned about program's beneficiaries, safety of staff

HUAMBO, Angola/GENEVA 23 March (lwi) Huambo, Angola's second city,
used to be a town noted for its architecture and the flowering
tropical plants which it produced for export. Today, most of its
buildings are in ruins or scarred by battles past, its roads
pot-holed and rutted, and the population tense, hungry and
demoralized, according to the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UCAH).

Like most of Angola's government-controlled provincial capitals,
Huambo some 500 km southeast of the capital Luanda, and its estimated
300,000 people are under siege, cut off from the outside world by
roads too dangerous to use, minefields around its perimeter, and
enemy forces of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA) rebel movement led by Jonas Savimbi as close as 30 km away.

During a meeting with Francesco Strippoli, the UN humanitarian
coordinator and World Food Program (WFP) representative in Angola,
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service
(DWS) Program Secretary for Refugees, Roswitha Dinger, confirmed that
by early March the humanitarian situation in the Southern African
country was getting worse.

An earlier update of the situation by the LWF/DWS representative in
Angola, John Damerell underscored that security was a major concern
for the LWF/WS relief projects among the internally displaced people
(IDPs) in Nzaji (Luanda Norte province), Saurimo (Luanda Sul) and
Luena (Moxico).

The LWF/DWS in Angola works with some 60,000 IDPs, implementing
emergency relief activities among them. But Damerell notes that the
actual figure of those in need is much higher estimated at 200,000.
Support for the beneficiaries includes provision of shelter, water
and sanitation, basic health, assistance with food distribution and
camp management. Funds for the project come from the LWF, the
European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), UCAH-Department for
Humanitarian Affairs, Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA) and Action by Churches Together (ACT).

Organizationally based in the LWF and the World Council of Churches
(WCC), ACT works to meet human need by coordinating the emergency
response of a worldwide network of churches and their related
agencies. The LWF is the largest single ACT member in Angola.

With the suspension of UN flights in Angola following the shooting
down of two planes last December and January, the LWF-Angola is
greatly affected as "we rely 100 percent on air transportation for
all our supplies fuel, non-food items etc. to the field," Damerell
says. He points out that the use of private carriers is not
recommended either since they are potential targets for UNITA who
claim the aircraft are ferrying government troops and supplies.
Several of these private aircraft have also been shot down recently
by UNITA, he adds.

Another condition affecting humanitarian access to the provinces is
the withdrawal of the UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) from the
province to Luanda, which means that there will be no refueling
facilities in the provinces. The Angolan government asked the UN not
to renew the mandate of the MONUA which ceased operations on 26
February, but the UN humanitarian community and NGOs have been told
they can remain.  Damerell notes that the WFP, together with non-
governmental organizations, "will have to take on these
responsibilities in order to make the system work."

In his situation analysis of Angola, the LWF/DWS representative
stressed that the political, military and security situations are
constantly being monitored with regard to the implementation of the
LWF-Angola program and "particularly the safety and well-being of our
staff and assets."

The worsening security situation means that the LWF staff cannot
travel to out-lying project areas. Relief supplies have to be flown
in by aircraft. When they land, the planes use a "cork screw" landing
technique in order to reduce their exposure to possible anti-aircraft
fire, ACT explains.

The war in Angola resumed with renewed fighting last December,
violating the UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol peace accords. Strippoli
said that since April last year, over 600,000 people had been
displaced around the country and that their number was now bound to
increase. "I am extremely pessimistic because the country continues
to be affected by fighting and new displacements," he said. "On the
other hand, we are not only concerned about people who have been
displaced, but by the situation of the general population at large in
cities under siege."

According to UN officials in Angola, humanitarian agencies do not
have access to half the country and it has been difficult to provide
a complete breakdown of the suffering. But OCHA figures, submitted to
the UN Security Council over recent months, estimate that about 30
percent of Angola's population do not have access to safe drinking
water; an estimated  40 percent has no access to health services and
only six percent of the eligible population finish the sixth grade of
schooling. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) figures show that Angolans
experience an under-five mortality rate of nearly 30 percent, and a
maternal mortality rate of 1,280 per 100,000 live births which it
says "are among the worst in the world".

With the observers no longer operating, Strippoli said: "We are now
following the situation in this country with the view that every
Angolan deserves the right to aid." He warned that given the serious
deterioration in security conditions necessitating delivery of food
and other supplies by air to Huambo and elsewhere, the cost of
transport and other logistics was bound to increase.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/