Suffering follows 25,000 displaced

When UNITA rebels attacked the Nambuangongo area in the north of Bengo province early in September, the people there had no doubts about where they should seek refuge. For most of them, this was the second time they were forced to leave their homes - so they walked more than 200 km to Caxito, 60 km northeast of the capital, Luanda. They headed for a camp for displaced people, where many of them previously lived for six years.

A man called Denis Gomes recalled how he first fled Nambuangongo in 1992, the year UNITA lost Angola's first and only democratic election and returned to war, overrunning much of the country. He and others headed to a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) outside Caxito, where they remained until 1998, when they returned home believing they would be safe.

"In '92 we were here in the tents," Gomes told IRIN. "But we returned to work in our fields, planting cassava - we were rebuilding our lives. Then we saw everything destroyed a second time."

Humanitarian officials say that 25,000 people have arrived at the Caxito camp since the beginning of September - more than initially expected. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at first prepared for 5,000 arrivals, and plans had to be revised rapidly. Shelter and sanitation are the most pressing concerns.

At the camp, which sprawls over undulating terrain alongside the main road about 10 km west of Caxito, non-governmental organisations are distributing staple foods, cooking utensils, plastic sheeting and blankets. People are building shelters of grass or plastic sheeting.

Maria Kassanga was among those who arrived at the settlement after an arduous journey of more than 200 km. "UNITA killed my husband and kidnapped my children," she told IRIN. "Three of my children were kidnapped." She described how she and her three other children spent two weeks living in the bush as they made their way on foot to Caxito.

Nambuangongo is a fertile agricultural area. Its inhabitants were previously self-sufficient and also used to supply food to Luanda and other parts of the country. Now there are fears that the attacks could push up the already high food prices in the capital.

Survivors told how UNITA soldiers made off with food stocks - the raid in Nambuangongo and others elsewhere in Angola have coincided with the harvest season. For UNITA this is a way of feeding soldiers for whom pillaging has become an important means of sustenance. But in terms of strategy they also fit into a pattern. During the past six months, UNITA has systematically attacked towns, villages and transport routes in the northwest of the country, with the apparent aim of sowing terror in what has traditionally been seen as the political heartland of the ruling MPLA, and which for several years has considered itself secure against rebel attacks.

So it is that people like Gomes, who had gone home to a supposedly safe area, find themselves once again left as 'deslocados' - displaced people - for the second time in 10 years. They are among between three and four million people who have been displaced in Angola as a result of its ongoing civil war.

"We have no houses here, nothing to eat, nothing," Gomes says. "I believe I will go back to Nambuangongo, because that's my home area. But we can't go back if UNITA won't let us. If our forces manage to push UNITA out, I will go back to my area of origin."