Kuito,
the battered capital of Bie Province, is no stranger to suffering,
its people no strangers to death. More than 158,000 people forc
ed to flee their homes because of war and poverty live in camps
around the city and rely on donated food rations to survive. More
than 22,000 others try to eke out a living while the 26-year conflict
between the MPLA government and UNITA rebels rages on around them.
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Standing
in ruins among equally battered buildings on Kuito's main
Joaquim Capango street, is what used to be the city's biggest
church
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Kuito
lies in Angola's panalto, the fertile central highlands region that
was once the country's breadbasket. The area is ethnically Ovimbundu,
the group from which UNITA rebels draw the bulk of their support.
The Bie plateau has long been among the most densely populated parts
of the country.
Throughout
Angola's civil war, the rural population has suffered: either directly,
by being caught in the middle of the fighting and forced to flee
their homes, or indirectly as a result of a lack of development
that has left them further impoverished. But in 1993, the war came
to Kuito with devastating effect. For 18 months the city was divided
down the middle between government troops and UNITA. Residents and
displaced alike were forced to scavenge for food in what became
known as "Angola's Stalingrad".
In
1998, with the final collapse of the shaky 1994 Lusaka peace accord
- largely as a result of UNITA non-compliance - Angola was back
at war.
After
a string of military setbacks, in which UNITA was again able to
lay siege to key government towns, government forces managed to
secure a narrow perimeter around the provincial capitals. But in
Kuito, as with most of Angola's cities, the humanitarian lifeline
remains its airstrip. The potholed runway is the only means by which
supplies can reach those in need.
IRIN
recently visted Kuito to examine the plight of the residents and
displaced in the city, who daily confront the legacy of Africa's
longest-running war.
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Facing
the reality of war
KUITO, June (IRIN) - A potholed airstrip
is about the only lifeline the residents of Angola's central
highland city of Kuito have to the outside world. Everything
its one million residents need to survive has to be airlifted
in because the country's ongoing civil war has destroyed the
roads or rendered them unsafe for civilians and aid workers
alike. Yet two years after a deal was struck to fix Kuito's
landing strip, it still remains in a severe state of disrepair.
[Full report]
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Still
living off the earth
KUITO, June (IRIN) - Estevao Culivela is
60 years old and says he still works as hard as he did when
he was younger. He hails from the outskirts of Kuito, in Angola's
central highlands, where he grew fresh vegetables to feed
his family and to sell to others in the town. Today he and
his family live in the eastern Kuito suburb of Catemo and
he works as a builder to support his wife, two sons and four
daughters. Culivela and a friend operate their little business
on the roadside, where scores of their newly-baked bricks
lie in neat rows in the sun. Their work is back-breaking.
[Full report]
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Bearing the brunt of war
KUITO,
June (IRIN) - Ten-year-old Costa Sapalo wants peace and
a family more than anything in the world - not new sneakers
to replace his torn ones or long pants to beat off the cold.
Costa is one of 120 children who live in an orphanage simply
called 'the lodge' in Kuito, the capital of Angola's Bie
Province. The province's governor, Luis Paulino dos Santos,
describes the central highlands province as the heart of
Angola. It is even shaped so.
[Full report]
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