No victory over hunger

Advances by the Angolan government in its ongoing military offensive against UNITA rebels is yet to translate into an improvement in the humanitarian situation for civilians caught up in the long-running conflict. Due to a lack of secure land, “there is little planting going on so there won’t be much of a harvest. If there is no harvest, there will be a lot of hungry people,” a humanitarian official told IRIN on Tuesday. In the remote town of Matala in the southern province of Huila, a Medecins sans frontieres (MSF-Spain) team recently estimated the rate of severe malnutrition at 13 percent. “Severe means just before terminal,” the humanitarian official said. Displaced people continue to arrive in Matala fleeing insecurity in the rest of the province. In the central highlands city of Kuito, MSF last week registered 607 new people attending supplementary feeding centres as against the 407 who attended the week before. Cases of Pellagra, a skin disease caused by vitamin deficiency, continue to be recorded in the city. The formerly besieged government-held cities “may not now be so besieged, but there is no commercial influx of commodities to the towns,” an aid worker explained. “Many residents with no access to affordable food are also becoming vulnerable.” To reduce the pressure on the overcrowded cities and towns in the interior, the government is encouraging internally displaced people (IDPs) to return to their areas of origin recently captured by government forces in the central highlands and the north of the country. “IDPs are usually very eager to return to their farms and villages. If they are not going back it’s because they don’t feel secure,” the humanitarian official said. Humanitarian agencies expect there to be an increase in the number of people requiring relief assistance over the next three or four months in what is traditionally the lean season before next year’s harvest. “We hope things will turn around, but it will not happen overnight,” the aid worker added.