MSF says hungry IDPs on the move in southeast

Thousands of hungry people in southeastern Angola are heading for the town of Mavinga in the hope of finding food, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned in a statement on Friday. "Over the past few days, people have left the 'reception sites' of Matungo and Capembe, Cuando Cubango province, to go on foot to Mavinga (about 50-km away) in the hope of receiving food aid. The nutritional situation is, indeed, far from being stabilised in this area of Angola," MSF said. The distribution of food by the UN's World Food Programme in the "reception sites" (previously called Quartering and Family Areas for ex-UNITA soldiers and their families) of Capembe and Matungo had to be stopped for about two weeks following the discovery of a landmine on the airstrip in Mavinga. "This temporary rupture of food aid has been the cause of a massive displacement of tens of thousands of people towards Mavinga in search of food. This shows the precarious situation in which these populations find themselves," MSF said. "The gravity of the situation and the lack of food is so severe that our teams even saw handicapped people, with prostheses and crutches, start to walk the 50 km which separates them from Mavinga. In fact, this surge, which doubles the number of the people in the town of Mavinga, also makes us fear the worst in terms of epidemic outbreaks considering the lack of drinkable water and early arrival of the rains," the statement quoted Fred Meylan, the head of the MSF mission in Angola, as saying. The rations currently distributed in the area are insufficient to stabilise the nutritional status of the population, said MSF. In Mavinga, and in the "reception sites", MSF currently cares for more than 1,700 people suffering from malnutrition, and will have to triple this number during the coming months. "The Mavinga area, one of the most mined in the country, is difficult to reach, and we know that populations remain isolated without our teams being able to reach them," said Meylan. MSF also warned that if no general distribution of seeds and tools was made in the next few weeks, the survival of tens of thousands of people would depend entirely on humanitarian aid until next spring. "It is therefore urgent that, in addition to humanitarian aid, logistical and demining actions be undertaken without delay in order to provide fast and durable aid to these completely destitute populations," the medical relief agency said.