ANGOLA: Attacks along strategic humanitarian route

People fleeing the besieged government-held city of Malanje along a strategic humanitarian convoy route to the capital Luanda have increasingly come under attack by armed gunmen in recent days, the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH) said in its latest report. In one such attack on Monday, 19 April, it said two vehicles travelling the 500 km road west towards the capital were ambushed and the passengers shot and killed. "The number of victims is still unknown because the vehicles were jam-packed with people escaping Malanje. A few injured survivors, mainly children, are being treated in Kuanza Norte hospital," it said. The report, covering the period 16-21 April, said the number of casualties along the road - a route used by WFP to ferry food to thousands of displaced people seeking asylum in Malanje - had risen in recent days. Although transport to the area was "risky", WFP said emergency food supplies in Malanje remained "adequate". The report gave no indication as to who might be behind the attacks, but analysts told IRIN that although the UNITA rebel movement controlled much of the countryside, there were also armed bands of roving bandits in many parts of the country. Fighting between UNITA and government forces plunged the country back to war late last year after a breakdown of the 1994 UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol peace accords. In other humanitarian developments, UCAH said a Rapid Response Group (RRG)had been set up in Luena, the capital of Moxico Province, some 800 km southeast of Luanda. It was formed by WFP and SCF with government assistance "to enable swift humanitarian assistance to the new internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were arriving in the town". WFP through its implementing partners was currently assisting about 54,000 IDPs and providing about 600 mt of food per month.