Government raids independent radio station

The Angolan government raided the independent radio station 'Radio Eccelesia' on Monday night, after it had aired an excerpt from a BBC interview with the UNITA rebel movement leader, Jonas Savimbi. According to sources in the capital city Luanda, three journalists were briefly detained late Monday night. They added that normal programmes were interrupted and the station was only allowed to broadcast music. "But all seems to be normal today, with 'Radio Ecclesia' broadcasting normally,' a source told IRIN. During the interview Savimbi denied that there was a humanitarian crisis in Angola, claiming that international aid had been stolen by government soldiers. He added that he was ready for an "immediate" ceasefire if Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos agreed to have talks with him. Meanwhile in its latest update the United Nations Humanitarian Assistance Unita (UCAH) said that "the humanitarian situation in Angola was still worsening without the prospect of improving in the short-term." It added that people in the city of Malanje were living in the worst humanitarian conditions in the country and that there have been confirmed reports of people dying each day from malnutrition related diseases. The first relief food since May arrived in Malanje on 31 July, with seven trucks carrying an estimated 245 mt of food. "WFP plans to supply over 2,200mt of food during this month for over 200,000 beneficiaries," it said. UCAH added that in the central highland town of Huambo, the closure of the airport on 4 August had resulted in the suspension of WFP relief flights to Angola's second city. The last flight took place on 2 August, when food aid was distributed to over 10,000 internally displaced people (IDP's). It added that a small number of new IDP's had arrived in Luena and the city of Menongue had registered about 647 new IDP's.