ICRC ends aid to Huambo

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ending its distribution of food and garden-vegetable seeds to almost 300,000 people in villages and to internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the central highland town of Huambo.

“Improved security conditions in the region mean that people can once again work the fields and grow the crops they need to live,” the ICRC’s latest news bulletin said. “An ICRC food survey carried out in March in the villages around Huambo and Caala showed that the severe malnutrition rate among the population had dropped to 2.2 percent. These remaining cases are due more to endemic illnesses in the region such as malaria, parasitic diseases and diarrhoea than to lack of food.” The ICRC said that only displaced people with no access to arable land will continue receiving food aid. “Permanent village residents around Huambo will continue benefiting from ICRC agricultural assistance,” the bulletin noted.

The ICRC said that fierce fighting in the central highlands between government troops and UNITA forces in late 1998 caused a food shortage affecting civilians living in the Huambo area, and over 30 percent of the population eventually suffered from severe malnutrition. “To meet the resulting needs, the ICRC urgently began large-scale food distributions. A considerable logistical effort made it possible to bring into the area and distribute over 37,200 mt of food in all,” it said.

In addition, an agricultural rehabilitation programme was launched involving regular distribution of seed and implements, production of natural fertilizer, diversification of local seed varieties, clearing of irrigation canals, etc. Some 3,200 mt of seed (maize, sorghum and bean) have been distributed to farmers.