Displaced estimated at 2.5 million

Around 2.5 million Angolans are believed to have been forced from their homes by the on-going conflict, according to the latest figures by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But less than half of Angola’s estimated displaced population, some 1 million people, have been officially registered by a UN agency or NGO. OCHA’s latest update said that its internally displaced persons (IDPs) figure was for the end of May. It represented a slight decrease from the 2.6 million people estimated as displaced at the beginning of the month based on the clarification of IDP caseloads by provincial governments and return movements in the northern Kwanza Norte and Zaire provinces. The OCHA report said that on 15 June, representatives of the Angolan government, UN agencies and 17 NGOs attended a full-day workshop in Luanda to discuss the conclusions and recommendations made by a joint UN/NGO mission on food aid distribution and targeting strategies in Angola. “The preliminary report listed 22 recommendations regarding WFP food distribution strategy, criteria for the selection of beneficiaries and duration of free food assistance. The mission stressed the need to reduce free food aid to a limited period during which appropriate support mechanisms should be developed to encourage self-reliance among beneficiary groups,” OCHA said. The preliminary report recommended that WFP continues to support its current caseload with free food aid until May 2001, by which time beneficiaries are expected to become self-supporting. “The ability of target groups to become self-reliant will depend on agricultural programmes that include the distribution of agricultural inputs in time for the planting season beginning in October 2000,” the OCHA update said. The UN/NGO report recommended that starting in May 2001, WFP should focus free food aid on three beneficiary groups including newly displaced persons, families with malnourished children attending feeding centres and returnees or IDPs being permanently resettled. The report further proposed that WFP introduce a series of safety net mechanisms for other categories of beneficiaries who may require food aid, including food-for-work, targeted community kitchens or school feeding programmes, OCHA said.