Kuito hunger ‘grows worse’

Cases of malnutrition in the Angolan central highland town of Kuito are rapidly increasing, reported on Thursday. SFP spokeswoman Cristina Muller said although aid flights to the town had resumed earlier this week, the poor condition of the airport runway was hindering the relief effort. At the same time, more and more people were arriving in the town, driven from their homes by Unita rebels and other armed groups, Muller was quoted as saying.

Muller, who had just returned from the town, described the situation as very serious. “The nutritional situation is deteriorating at a very fast rate as people come in from the countryside. The number of cases of malnourished children is on the rise on a daily basis,” she was quoted as saying. She added that the level of child malnutrition had reached a two-year high, with one out of three children suffering from tuberculosis or other respiratory diseases. Those able to remain on their farms have already eaten most of the food from the last harvest, and looting by armed groups has further diminished the food stocks, according to the report. All food supplies to Kuito have to be flown in because the civil war makes road transport impossible.

“We actually are only able to provide 65% of the needs in Kuito at the moment because of the state of the runway,” Muller was quoted as saying. “So, in addition to the time that we were paralysed because of the attacks on us, we also are not able to fly sufficient food because the runway is in such bad condition.” Since the airport was also used by military planes, only the government may carry out repairs, the report said. Aid organisations, including the WFP, have been calling for the airstrip to be repaired as a matter of urgency for more than two years.