Living conditions of residents and displaced persons deteriorate

In its latest update on the situation in Angola, the United Nations Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH) said that the general situation in the country remained unstable with increased military operations in several areas, resulting in the continued movement of people to more secure areas. "As the traditional mechanisms of supply between rural areas and towns continue to be disrupted, the living conditions of both residents and displaced persons are further deteriorating," the report said. UCAH said that despite the constraints related to accessing people in need and the lack of security conditions, "humanitarian assistance activities continue to focus on the most vulnerable affected populations in the limited accessible locations in the country." In Kuito , about 500 km south of the capital Luanda, UCAH said that even under "precarious security conditions" humanitarian operations were still continuing. It said that humanitarian assistance was enabling internally displaced persons (IDPs) to build shelters for themselves in the camps and to get arable land. The report added that the NGO CARE had distributed vegetable seed kits to 15,178 families in Kuito and had managed to re-establish emergency health services in eight facilities and in the IDP camps, "providing a monthly average of 20,000 consultations since February." In Huambo, the capital of the central highland, Huambo Province a nutritional assessment at feeding centres among mothers found that 93 percent were residents of the city, with only 7 percent displaced women. The results indicated that 65 percent of the assessed mothers showed signs of acute or moderate malnutrition. "These results are evidence of the deteriorating nutritional situation among resident populations leading humanitarian operators to consider a broader nutritional survey targeting children and adults," UCAH said. In the coastal city of Benguela, about 400 km south of Luanda, a nutritional survey by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) found 3.4 percent global malnutrition "thus not indicating an emergency situation with regard to children under five years of age." However, UCAH said that taking into account other indicators such as prices of basic foodstuffs, decreased circulation of people and goods between the coast and the interior and the approaching traditional season of food shortages in November through to February, "the situation needs to be monitored and support to nutritional programmes had to be provided." In the northern Uige Province, humanitarian organisations had progressively increased their capacity so as to respond to the thousands of new IDPs in Negage, about 40 km south of the province's capital, Uige. The report said that airlifts of food and non-food items to Negage had increased with almost daily flights to the town. According to UCAH mine accidents around the town of Luena in Moxico Province, in eastern Angola have continued with four incidents affecting 18 people between 25 August and 11 September. The report said that on the basis of the information received by appealing agencies and compiled by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), donor response to the revised 1999 appeal has reached 61 percent of the total requirements as 10 September.