Food secure until December

A late donation to the World Food Programme (WFP) has guaranteed food rations to more than one million people in Angola until the end of December, according to WFP Public Affairs Officer in Luanda, Cristina Muller. However, Muller told IRIN on Thursday that there were still shortages on the horizon. “With this (new) donation we can guarantee the food pipeline until the end of December. However, if we don’t get some form of commitments by the end of September, we predict a break in the pipeline around January and February,” Muller said. She said a donation of about 6,000 mt of resources from the United States had plugged the gap until the end of December and that the agency needed about the same quantity of supplies to ensure deliveries in January and February. WFP feeds just over one million people in Angola every day. “It’s more convenient if we get commodities like pulses, beans, peas, lentils, maize, sugar, oil, cornflour blend and other commodities which make up our food basket,” Muller said. It takes a period of about three months to convert a financial pledge into food on the ground. The state of Angola’s runways and its unstable military situation have also affected food deliveries, according to Muller. WFP flights are only permitted between 7am and 5pm because of security threats. In Huambo, however, flights are permitted between 7am and 2pm only, further inhibiting WFP’s capacity to get food to the needy. Meanwhile, the UN food agency said in its latest situation report for 20-26 August that the security situation in Angola continued to be characterised by military instability. “The most affected areas/provinces during this reporting week were: Malanje, Kuando Kubango and Benguela, where groups coming into the provincial capitals were subject to ambushes,” the report said. In Maquela do Zombo in Uige province, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), between 3,000 and 4,000 people who fled fighting between government and rebel troops were seeking refuge, Muller said. However, she added that the number of people needing aid there seemed to change constantly. Aid workers said earlier that many people who had fled into the DRC were returning because of conditions there. Others were being assisted by authorities and aid agencies in the DRC. About two weeks ago aid workers said about 10,000 people were trapped because of fighting south of Maquela do Zombo.