Conditions remain poor, MSF

Malnutrition rates in Angola have declined, but conditions in the war-ravaged country remain extremely poor, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said this week. "The Angola malnutrition emergency ... has reduced when compared to the severe standards at its peak. However malnutrition, crude mortality rates, lack of access to health care and food insecurity all remain unacceptably high," the medical relief agency warned. The situation was likely to be further complicated by the return of about 850,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their areas of origin, MSF said. "The movement of people will massively strain coping mechanisms that have been built up in the past," MSF warned. UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Angola, Erick de Mul, earlier told IRIN that it was estimated that about 900,000 IDPs would return to their home areas before the end of the year. MSF-Belgium head of mission in Angola, Fasil Bezera, told IRIN that the situation was desperate for the majority of the IDPs who have returned to their areas of origin. "Most of the areas to which the populations are going back to have no basic amenities, no access to water, no medical care. Agencies will not be in a position to reach the vast majority of them, about 70 percent, because of poor road conditions and landmine problems," he added. The coming rainy season, which could cause disruptions to food aid distribution, and measles outbreaks were a concern. "Reports of measles outbreaks continue to confirm the extremely poor vaccination coverage countrywide," MSF said. But while conditions had generally improved for most Angolans, there were still pockets of desperate need in parts of the country. "The most striking exception to the improving conditions is still in Mavinga, in the south east, where there has been hundreds of fatalities in two UNITA receptions areas. MSF is continuing to respond with supplementary and therapeutic feeding. In addition, nutritional stress remains of concern to MSF in Huambo and Huila provinces," the organisation noted. Complicating matters for vulnerable populations was the general lack of health care facilities. MSF said preventative health care was "almost non-existent". While curative health care, at the primary level, was at best "limited to infrequent and inadequate supplies of drugs". Referral services were "similarly not in evidence". "Outside the former security cordons, extending around former provincial capitals, little improvement has occurred in the provision of government health care," the agency charged.