Reducing aid dependency in Huambo

A large scale agricultural assistance programme has been launched in Angola's central highlands to overcome increasing food shortages and reduce people's dependence on food aid, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told IRIN on Thursday. The scheme aims to benefit an estimated 62,000 families, both residents and displaced, on the Planalto. In the current first phase of the two stage programme, which corresponds to the areas' two growing seasons, agricultural supplies are to be distributed to enable the working of fields around the besieged city of Huambo. Hoes, fertiliser and vegetable seed are to be provided to a total of 34,437 families in Huambo, which for the past two days has been shelled by the UNITA rebel movement. Security permitting, as from next week 45,947 displaced families in the surrounding areas of Caala, Cuando and Calenga are to receive monthly half-rations of food. The second phase of the programme is planned for August with the distribution of agricultural kits of seeds and fertilizer and half-rations of food. This stage is to last until the next harvest in March-April 2000. "Their previous harvest was looted, the displaced have nothing," ICRC's deputy head of delegation Pascal Haldimann told IRIN. "For the time being we have been able to distribute some seeds and food to the needy people identified. It's a question of getting items to people so that they can survive." With UNITA's strategy based on harassing government-held cities, ICRC's programme is all the more urgent given the possibility that shelling could close Huambo airport, the city's aid lifeline, analysts said.