New OCHA humanitarian report

An estimated 2.5 million people in Angola have been displaced around the country since the resumption of hostilities between government forces and UNITA rebels in December 1998.

According to the latest report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Angola on Tuesday, one million of those people have been officially confirmed as internally displaced persons (IDPs). They are currently living in camps, often in squalid conditions, in 120 locations around the country, of which 36 are inaccessible to the humanitarian community because of fighting or other security factors which prevent the delivery of relief.

The report covering the period up to the end of April, listed ambushes and landmine explosions in the northern province of Uige, the southwest province of Benguela, the neighbouring province of Huila, and in the eastern province of Moxico.

“Cuanza Norte Province remains insecure and is inaccessible to humanitarian actors,” OCHA said. It said the town of Calulo, 240 km southeast of the capital, Luanda, in Cuanza Sul province was shelled on 4 and 5 April, but gave no further details. Until a government offensive last October, most provincial capitals in Angola were held under seige by UNITA and frequently subjected to bouts of shelling and mortar fire.

“As fighting still rages in many areas of the the country, the humanitarian task is becoming more and more complex and daunting,” an OCHA spokesman in Luanda told IRIN.

Earlier, WFP forecast a break in the relief pipeline by early August because it had received no new food relief contributions from the donor community in April. This means, it said, that daily food rations for many IDPs might have to be cut back.