Don't forget the children - UNICEF

On the first anniversary of Angola's peace accord that ended 27-years of war, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has pleaded with the international community not to forget the southern African nation.

"As the world focuses on Iraq, now is not the time to overlook Angola," UNICEF Angola Representative Mario Ferrari said in a statement.

"War doesn't end when the guns fall silent. Child mortality is at a crisis level here, 2.5 million people are displaced, landmines continue to threaten families' attempts to return to farm their land, and the education and health systems are terribly weak. So long as there remain multiple threats to the well-being of Angola’s children, there remains much to do."

UNICEF estimates that with 5,000 schools and 60 percent of all hospitals destroyed during the conflict, over one million children are out of school, and 45 percent of Angola's children suffer from chronic malnutrition.

"Although vast tracts of previously inaccessible areas are now open for the return of displaced families, large swathes of the countryside are unsafe for farming because of landmines, Ferrari said.

Calling for additional partners to assist in the crisis, Ferrari noted: "Angolan children have suffered terribly, as much as any children on the planet. It would be a tragedy if at this critical junction, at a time when they hold real hope, the international community forgot them."

"Sixty percent of the population are children, keen for change and a better future. We believe that the first step is putting Angolan children back in school and rebuilding the basic health system. But we are concerned that the international community is distracted at a decisive and delicate moment in this country's peace and reconstruction effort," he said.