Crime rises as wealth gap widens

It's been more than a week since Raul Canha was forced from his car at gunpoint, but his hands still tremble as he recounts his ordeal in a quivering voice. Canha, 26, was driving home in the Angolan capital, Luanda, at around 8 pm when he was surrounded by four youngsters - two with rifles slung over their shoulders and a third armed with a small pistol. They dragged him out of the car, jumped in and drove off. Although the vehicle was later recovered, it was stripped of its stereo, and his cash and identity documents were gone. "I'm still shaken," he told IRIN. "I lost all feeling in my legs when it happened. I did nothing, which is probably a good thing because I still have my life." Canha's frightening experience is no longer out of the ordinary in the crowded capital. Observers say such incidents highlight the growing frustration with the widening gap between the haves and have-nots. In its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), the government estimates that 68 percent of the population scrape by on less than US $1.70 a day. Angola should be a wealthy country: it's an oil producer of global significance, pumping more than a million barrels of black gold daily. Although the capital has witnessed significant improvements since the end of the civil war in 2002, the benefits have so far only filtered through to a select segment of people. Many young men are out of work, short of cash and have little purpose or structure to their lives. As they grow ever more disenchanted, crime has become the way to easy money. "It is partly to do with the economy, partly to do with kids not being in school and, for many people, crime is a lot easier than doing something to earn a living. Of course, what is worrying here is that weapons are being used more and more often, and this is leading to the development of gangs," said Pierre-Francois Pirlot, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Angola. Alcides Sakala, secretary for public administration of UNITA, Angola's main opposition party, believes the problem will not be solved while so many people live in Luanda - four million in a city built for half a million. "There are literally millions of people concentrated in Luanda, where unemployment is a huge problem," he said. "We have had three years of peace but we have no national plan that shows us something is being done to open up the interior of the country. As long as nothing is done to create roads and bridges, the tendency is for people to stay in Luanda, where they have no healthcare, no food, no housing - all the things they need to have a stable, social life. That is the source of these crime problems." Unemployed and impatient for a better life, some youths also succumb to the lure of drugs, sniffing rags doused in petrol to blot out the misery of their daily lives. "Things are not moving in Angola, despite peace; nothing has changed and people are becoming bored and frustrated, and some of the younger generation are turning to drugs," said taxi-driver Andre Azevedo. Locals argue that this attitude - often a mix of rebelliousness and desperation - is exacerbated by an inadequate penal system, which puts young offenders back on the streets within days of being detained. "These kids have no jobs, the older ones feel isolated and left out, and when they see people wearing fancy clothes, driving expensive cars and showing off the latest mobile phones, they want some of that life. If they get caught, they know they will be released within a few days, so to them it's worth it," he pointed out. The rising crime has not gone unnoticed, and is frequently the subject of editorials in the local press. "The positive aspect is that the police seem to be aware of the problem and are putting in place strategies to cope with the situation. Clearly, the fact that it is talked about in the media is a recognition that the problem does exist, and that someone is trying to address it," Pirlot commented. In some areas, such as Kilamba Kiaxi, an overcrowded slum about 5 km from Luanda, civic education and community policing projects have actually lowered the crime statistics. "This is due to a combination of factors: there are many more police patrols in the streets, especially at night, but also, we are doing a lot of civic education on human rights and civil behaviour; on top of that, community-based organisations and churches are doing a lot of work," said Robert Bulten, Country Director for the humanitarian NGO, CARE, which is involved in running the programmes. "It is difficult to say if the reduction is due to that, but we think it has helped a little bit in Kilamba Kiaxi. In areas where the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme is active - working with local organisations and churches - there is more social cohesion," he noted. But it will be a long time before Canha feels safe on Luanda's streets. "My confidence has been shattered; I feel nervous and afraid," he said. "This horrible event has totally changed my personality." (Names have been changed)