Humanitarian aid provided

Thousands of people displaced by clashes between government troops and rebels of Angola’s UNITA opposition movement have been receiving humanitarian assistance since the heaviest fighting abated late last week. The UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH), in a statement to IRIN on Tuesday, said 8,000 people had been receiving food and other aid since last Friday. Although the town in the central highlands Bie Province was not currently accessible by road or air, according to aid agency sources, food and medical aid was being provided with stocks already in place. In Huambo, to the southwest, more than 30,000 newly displaced people had been registered, UCAH said. “On Friday 18 December, the distribution of food and non-food items started targeting a first group of almost 7,500 people considered the most vulnerable,” it said. UCAH said the quick response in providing assistance to people displaced in the central highlands “was only possible thanks to the commitment of all humanitarian workers present at these two towns and to the monitoring and coordination of actions in the humanitarian community”.