Natural disaster threatens provincial capital

Humanitarian officials in Angola said on Wednesday they were concerned that erosion set off by heavy rains was further endangering people in the besieged government-held city of Luena, some 800 km southeast of the capital Luanda. They said a rift developing in Luena, capital of Moxico Province, had already severed water-supply pipes and was now threatening to cut electricity supplies to Luena’s 150,000 residents. “This will have a very serious impact on the population because they are already accommodating an estimated 40,000 internally displaced people,” said an official of the UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH). “Worse still, there is no obvious solution to this problem and people cannot leave the city because of the war and roads too insecure to use.” WFP, he added, had however, managed to fly emergency supplies to the city airport.