Urgent humanitarian action needed

The UN envoy for war-affected children has called for urgent action to address the devastating humanitarian legacy of Angola's three decades of civil conflict.

On his return from a visit to Angola, Olara Otunnu, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, hailed the "earthshaking good news" that the war was over, the UN's news service reported.

"I was also very struck by the eagerness of the Angolan population to reach out to each other across the previous dividing line and to begin a very genuine and serious process of reconciliation," he told a press briefing in New York on Wednesday.

But Otunnu said the war had taken a "devastating" toll. The vast majority of the country's four million internally displaced people were children, and some 100,000 youngsters had been separated from their families.

During the war, 5,000 schools had been destroyed, and today, more than 50 percent of Angola's children had no access to education. The majority of the country's hospitals and health facilities had also been levelled during the fighting. "It is no wonder that today so many kids are suffering from malaria, measles, malnutrition and preventable diseases," he said.

The envoy called for immediate action to respond to Angola's grave humanitarian crisis.

"I have issued in Luanda - I repeat here - an appeal to the government of Angola and the international humanitarian community, in this urgent matter of saving lives, to join hands to mount a major and immediate mobilisation of food, medicine, water and shelter for the population emerging from the previously UNITA-controlled areas," Otunnu said, referring to parts of the country that had been held by rebels.

He also called on the government and the international community to begin immediately rehabilitating key social services, particularly in the areas of education, health and nutrition.