Potholed runway grounds plane, halts aid delivery

Humanitarian officials in Angola expect a damaged Boeing 727 plane to be removed from the Kuito airstrip in Bie province by the end of the week, without affecting the delivery of food aid to the needy. The Boeing, delivering cargo to businesses in the province, was damaged and grounded when it hit a pothole on the runway while landing. No one was injured, but the accident once again highlighted the dismal state of the airstrip in the provincial capital. The runway's state of disrepair has hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid and, for more than two years, been a bone of contention between relief organisations and the provincial government, which is responsible for ensuring its maintenance. World Food Programme (WFP) deputy head of air operations in Luanda, Jose Fernandez, told IRIN that WFP had decided a while ago to use smaller craft to transport food to the airport because the runway could not accommodate bigger planes. Fernandez said the distribution of food to the needy would not be affected by the accident because even though WFP had to suspend its flights to Kuito until the runway was cleared, there was enough food aid in the city to last for about two months. The state of Kuito's airport, through which more than 80 percent of all relief aid reaches Bie, has made headlines before. While Bie governor Paulino dos Santos told IRIN in May that a private company contracted to the government was responsible for the repairs, work has been sporadic. Only 150 metres of the 2 km runway has so far been rehabilitated and there are fears that the rainy season, which normally lasts until April, could prevent planes from landing there altogether. Just one week ago, a high-powered delegation, including UN officials and the new US ambassador to Angola, Christopher Dell, visited Kuito to persuade the authorities there to speed up work on the airport and on roads which are essential for the delivery of emergency food aid. "It's very hard for anyone to understand how anyone could not want to fix that airport, how they could let it get to that point," Dell told IRIN. However, dos Santos said: "Unfortunately, the company to which the department of public works entrusted the task is not responding accordingly. The company does not have the technical capacity to speed up the work." Dell said the governor told the delegation that it would not be possible to do more than a patch-up job before the end of the rainy season at the end of April 2002. In May dos Santos said he hoped the repairs would be completed by October this year. An aid worker in Kuito told IRIN on Tuesday that while no one was injured in the Boeing accident, it had raised a great deal of concern. "Nobody was injured, but a similar incident in a smaller plane could have been very serious. You could imagine what would happen if a small passenger flight hit the same hole," he said. The delegation which visited Kuito also raised the condition of the road between Kuito and Camacupa, about 80 km away, which was opened earlier this year, granting humanitarian workers access to thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing fighting between government and rebel UNITA troops. All aid to Camacupa has to be transported by road from Kuito. A bridge and a stretch of road in a state of disrepair near to Camacupa could cause the town to be cut off during the rainy season. WFP Director in Angola, Ronald Sibanda, said during the visit that the ruined infrastructure could cause a "logistical nightmare" during the rainy season. "We are trying our best to pre-position stocks before the rains begin, but there is a limit to how much we can pre-position. It doesn't remove the need for improving the basic infrastructure, because this is a lifeline," he said. In another development, humanitarian officials confirmed to IRIN that the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) had begun delivering emergency food supplies to certain areas in the province which were under FAA control but were inaccessible to humanitarian workers. As an initiative of the FAA, the deliveries fall under the authority of the presidency and not the provincial government. IRIN was unable to obtain information on the volume or precise locations of the deliveries.