Share & more
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is to deliver desperately-needed assistance to the families of some of the 65,000 UNITA soldiers currently quartered in 35 locations across Angola, the agency said in a statement.
IOM has so far received two large consignments of non-food items donated by the US Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). Two Boeing 747-400 transporting more than 200 mt of aid landed at Luanda airport on 22 and 24 May. A third flight is scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
A ship carrying a fourth consignment of aid was due to leave Durban in South Africa for Luanda in the coming days. The OFDA donation consisted of blankets, plastic sheets for the construction of shelters, water containers, kitchen kits and soap. IOM said the supplies would cover the initial requirements of some 25,000 of the families most in need.
Working in close coordination with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and NGOs, the complex operation to distribute the aid to often inaccessible areas is to begin in the coming weeks, said the statement.
According to IOM's chief of mission in Angola, Nick Van der Vyver, conditions in some of the quartering areas are very poor. "Logistical constraints have prevented the delivery of adequate food, water, sanitation or health services and we are facing an emerging humanitarian crisis," he said.
IOM is currently developing an appeal in coordination with UNOCHA and other partners to obtain emergency financing to deliver additional assistance for those most in need.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
