Damaged infrastructure and mines hamper humanitarian work

Humanitarian agencies and provincial authorities are set to "pick up the pace" on road and bridge repairs, as poor infrastructure and landmine infestation continue to block access to large parts of Angola. These repairs have become the "defining priorities, now that the end of the rainy season is approaching", said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its latest situation report on Angola. Some reconstruction will take longer than was previously expected due to recent heavy rains. In the western Benguela province, "roughly 22,000 people are considered vulnerable in eight areas where humanitarian partners have no access due to broken bridges, road conditions and the threat of mines in eight isolated areas". Around 1,500 people from Munhango, in the deeply rural Kuemba municipality in the central province of Bie, have reportedly left the area to seek humanitarian assistance in neighbouring Moxico province to the east. "Kuemba is accessible only by air, and access to the interior of the municipality [has been] complicated by mine infestation, derelict roads, ravines, and broken bridges," the report explained. Although Angola's civil war ended in 2002, landmines are still a major threat in most provinces. A man died on 24 April in the Sande commune of Bie province when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine, which also injured two others. This was the fifth mine accident recorded in the area since June 2002. "The area is classified as red [in terms of mine threat], and is also cut off due to a broken bridge. The police informed [demining NGO] HALO Trust about a minefield around the primary school in Chicala, Kuito municipality [of Bie province]," said the report. In Huila province in the southwest, landmines have delayed reconstruction projects on key roads for five months. In the southern province of Kuando Kubango, Angolan authorities have registered 98 minefields, excluding areas that are inaccessible or still unsurveyed. During the first quarter of 2004 demining NGOs in Moxico deactivated 62 anti-personnel mines, 20 anti-tank mines and 562 pieces of unexploded ordnance.