Poor roads and landmines hampers aid delivery

In its latest situation report on Angola, the World Food Programme (WFP) said derelict roads and landmines continued to restrict the delivery of much needed food aid. The UN's food agency said operations in Ngumbi, in the central province of Malange, remained suspended following the discovery of several anti-tank mines in the area. In August, landmines forced WFP to suspend its programmes in two southern provinces - Huila and Cunene. Although agencies had been able to reach eight of the 10 districts in Kuanza Norte, in the north of the country, bad road conditions were "the greatest constraint to the movement of people and circulation of goods". WFP needs to deliver three months of food supplies to several remote provinces before the rainy season limits access. The report also highlighted the mass return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in several provinces to their areas of origin. About 9,000 people had returned from Kuito IDP camps to the central province of Bie. WFP recommended the opening of supplementary feeding programmes in the newly accessible areas of Mutumbo, Mumbue and Somakuanza, where the nutritional situation had reached critical levels. To assist many of the returnees, seeds and tools would be distributed followed by food rations, WFP reported. Following a recent security assessment in the northern province of Luanda Norte, the roads linking Lucapa-Dundo-Nzaji-Canzar and Cambulo have been opened. As a result, UN agencies expected to access the eastern part of the province, where returning Angolan refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia had reportedly settled. Of the 470,000 Angolan refugees currently living in Zambia, the DRC, Namibia and the Republic of Congo, 80,000 are likely to spontaneously return during coming months, humanitarian officials believe. In Huambo, 200 km south of the capital Luanda, 2,086 returnees had received WFP food rations for a month. A further 14,000 in newly accessible areas of Cuima and Catata are expected to benefit from a seeds and tools programme. WFP said it would continue to deliver food to Luena in the eastern province of Moxico during the rainy season. But a broken bridge over the Luy river continued to hamper food deliveries, the report said.