Warring parties ignore humanitarian crisis - MSF

The government and Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA were “turning a blind eye to the obvious, serious and often acute humanitarian needs of the Angolan people”, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday. “Both the government and the UNITA rebel movement are guilty of this negligence. The medical and nutritional emergencies that MSF encounters due to its projects in the field are not just a logical consequence of the ongoing war. To a large extent they are caused by the near-total neglect towards populations, the disrespect of international humanitarian law, and the military strategies of the parties to the conflict,” the international medical organisation said in a statement. Angola’s 26-year-old civil war has forced almost four million people from their homes and has isolated scores of communities. More than one million people rely solely on food rations from the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) to survive and according to official estimates, more than 500,000 people - possibly is desperate need of food and medical care - cannot be reached because of the ongoing war. Global malnutrition rates have been escalating in recent months, particularly among children. In certain areas, rates of almost 46 percent were recently recorded and there have been reports of high fatality rates too. MSF-Belgium representative in Angola, Erwin van der Borght, told IRIN: “We decided to highlight this issue publicly because of the lack of progress in terms of (the government and UNITA’s) operational response. A lot has to do with prioritisation and taking responsibility for the population. A lot can be done in spite of the fact that there is a war going on.” For example, he said, there had been times when Angolan army planes were in the air, while a shortage of fuel crippled aid delivery. There had also been times when government troops were provided with food rations, but civilian populations were left to their own devices. Van der Borght said Angola was unique in that large parts of the population could not be reached. In its statement, MSF said: “While the government claims to control over 90 percent of Angolan territory, the basic conditions for providing humanitarian assistance exist in only a very small part of the country. To a large extent, this is because negotiated access for impartial and neutral assistance has not been addressed by the international community and the parties to the conflict, hereby denying the right of populations in need to receive humanitarian support.” The organisation listed among the underlying causes of the humanitarian emergencies in Angola, the “forced displacement caused by military strategies applied by both parties, which drive large populations from their land and then pin them down in restricted areas, where the authorities then fail to provide food or health care”. Others were the “near absence of governmental response to emergencies under its control” and the “incapacity to negotiate” access to vulnerable communities with the warring parties. According to the MSF, the towns of Cuemba in Bie province and Mussende in Cuanza Sul province - both under government control - created cause for worry. “People abandon their homes and fields in compliance with government counter-UNITA tactics of removing people from the rural areas. Populations also flee violent oppression and destruction (or theft) of harvests, primarily but not only by UNITA. UNITA forces effectively prevent people from returning to their fields to gather food, attacking them - punishing them for having ‘chosen’ the government side - or laying mines on paths to fields. Once crowded into government-controlled cities and towns that are inaccessible to aid organisations, people rely on the civil and military authorities for essential food or medical assistance. However, these are not forthcoming,” the MSF statement said. It said that since 1 April more than 5,000 ill and malnourished people had made a perilous 80 km journey from Cuemba to Camacupa, also in Bie province, in search of food, medical care and safety. Those arriving in Camacupa in need of urgent treatment are transported to Kuito, the provincial capital, where a massive humanitarian mission has been mounted. However, a combination of factors - including the condition of the airstrip and precarious security - have hindered humanitarian operations in Kuito, where new pellagra epidemic has been reported among resident and displaced populations. According to the MSF between 70 and 80 cases a week are being reported. The WFP feeds more than 160,000 people each day in Kuito, but can only fly in less than 60 percent of the food it needs. Aid organisations have been wary of criticising the Angolan government’s response to the country’s humanitarian crisis, fearing that the repercussions would affect their ability to deliver aid to those most in need. Van der Borght told IRIN on Tuesday, however, that it was time the humanitarian crisis was prioritised by UNITA and government authorities. At the very least, he said, it was necessary to create the conditions for humanitarian workers to gain access to vulnerable populations. Citing a number of examples where government neglect and UNITA military activity had affected the provision of humanitarian aid, the MSF statement said: “MSF is worried that these cases are not isolated, but the tip of a humanitarian crisis in many Angolan localities which are beyond the tight security perimeters that limit the reach of international humanitarian aid, and sometimes the civilian government itself.” Van der Borght said MSF was discussing its report with a variety of government officials. An Angolan government representative told IRIN the statement was being studied and the government would respond on Wednesday. “In the longer term we hope that the government and UNITA take into consideration the consequences of their choices on the civilian population,” Van der Borght said, urging the donor community and the United Nations to pass the message on to the warring parties. For the full MSF statement see: http://www.msf.org/