Annan Recommends Extending UN Office to Help Peace Efforts

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the United Nations office in Angola be extended until mid-October to help support efforts to bring peace to the country. "The armed conflict in Angola has continued unabated, leaving much of the country insecure," the Secretary-General said in a report to the Security Council released on Tuesday. "Guerrilla activities are forcing the population to flee into neighbouring countries and creating serious humanitarian situations," he said.

Annan said he had asked his adviser for special assignments in Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, to continue consulting with the Angolan government and member states "on how best the United Nations can help accelerate the process of peace in the country." As part of that effort, Gambari would be visiting Angola in early May, said Annan.

According to the report, since the resumption of hostilities in 1998, the number of persons reportedly displaced had reached 2.86 million. "Of that number, 2.22 million internally displaced persons reportedly live in areas accessible to humanitarian agencies and 1.13 million of them have been confirmed by humanitarian organisations," Annan said in the report. He urged the donor community to respond as generously as possible to the UN's humanitarian appeals for Angola.

Reporting on the "tense" security situation throughout Angola, Annan said government troops were reported to be pursuing the residual forces of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). He also reported that UNITA troops "have been deserting in large numbers" under the government's amnesty law.

In recommending the extension of the UN Office, which was authorised by the Security Council in October 1999, the Secretary-General said that it would "continue to play an essential role in reporting on political and related developments in the country and in providing assistance to the Government and people of Angola in the area of human rights and capacity-building".