A grim humanitarian outlook by UNICEF

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking US $21.7 million from the international donor community for Angola where renewed warfare has pushed up global malnutrition rates and caused what it called an “extreme” deterioration in food security. Of 3.7 million affected by the 26-year civil war between government forces and the UNITA rebel movement, 1.7 million are displaced, the agency said in its appeal for the year 2000. It said 1 million of these displaced people were forced to flee their homes in 1999 alone, and that three quarters of them are women and children. In a country which ranks third in the world in under-five mortality rates, UNICEF also cited “dangerously high” maternal mortality rates in Angola where it said children were the most at risk anywhere in the world. It also said residents of the country’s besieged government-held cities were now as vulnerable as the tens of thousands who have sought refuge in them. With an estimated 7 million landmines around the country, Angola it said still had one of the highest concentrations of mines in the world. “To date, it is estimated that 90,000 persons have either been killed or permanently maimed due to landmine accidents in Angola,” the UNICEF report said. “Mined roads and footpaths impede repatriation of refugees and returnees, and mined farmland precludes agricultural production. Less than 4 percent of arable land is currently under production.” In the past year, it said, 23 UN relief workers and humanitarian staff had been killed in Angola. The humanitarian community was constrained by a lack of access to much of the country. Giving a detailed breakdown of funding requirements, UNICEF said it planned to combat child malnutrition in the besieged areas to which it had access in the provinces of Malanje, Huambo, Kuito, Luena, Cuando Cubango and areas of the capital, Luanda. It would boost immunisation coverage, especially for polio and measles, seek to reduce mortality for malaria, water-borne diseases and diseases that can be prevented by vaccination. UNICEF also planned to increase awareness of sexually transmitted diseases, and of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs), and provide better access to primary education. It was also seeking to improve services for children requiring special protection in a country where it said an estimated 100,000 children have been abandoned.