ANGOLA: 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.

This, according to Peter Rodrigues, World Food Programme (WFP) base manager in Kuito, is one of the main factors hindering the delivery of 2,600 mt of food needed each month to feed the city's poor and malnourished. They include in their number about 158,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) - many suffering from severe malnutrition - who have converged on the provincial capital to escape fighting and starvation in other parts of Bie Province.

Bie governor Luis Paulino dos Santos confirmed during an interview with IRIN that a contract had been signed with a private company to repair the airstrip and that several factors had delayed construction. He said efforts were being made to fix it as soon as possible. Until the airport is fixed, however, according to Rodrigues, WFP has to fly more expensive C-130 cargo aircraft into Kuito, and will battle to meet all its obligations. And if plans to deliver food to 60,000 more people in nearby Camacupa go ahead, 207 flights a month would be necessary to supply all the aid needed.

In the meantime, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Kuito. According to the UN's OCHA, the mortality rate at a therapeutic feeding centre in the city had reached 25 percent by the end of April. The global malnutrition rate recorded among IDPs being accommodated and treated around the city has been 46 percent - and people continue to arrive.

According to government figures, the most significant movements of displaced populations in recent months occurred in Bie, one of Angola's 18 provinces. More than 390,000 of Angola's 3.8 million war displaced people live in Bie. About 158,000 of these people are in IDP camps around Kuito, adding to a poverty-stricken population of about 220,000.

At one of the therapeutic feeding centres run by Medecins Sans Frontieres - Belgium (MSF-B) Laurence Sailly, a nutritionist, said: "From the end of April, I think we have seen more than 600 children from Camacupa and also from Cuemba who arrived in Kuito for treatment. Some have been cured and returned to Camacupa." Others have died. There has been an influx of starving, sick people into Kuito and its surroundings in recent months as people displaced by the war or lack of food elsewhere in the province come in search of help. Many had found their way to Camacupa, about 20 km from Kuito, where they were attacked again, and were forced to walk for days for help.

As a result, Sailly told IRIN, malnutrition itself was the main problem among those who were examined. "In all these areas people don't have enough food and most of our children have kwashiorkor. We also have associated diseases like respiratory infections because it is cold at night, very cold in Kuito, and some malaria, but the major problem is malnutrition because of the lack of food in the area." Those who are not admitted to the centre are housed, fed and cared for in other supplementary feeding centres, also run by MSF-B.

According to Isabel Afonso, provincial director of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Reintegration, people just continue to "pour out of the bush". She told IRIN that the government was working hand in hand with an array of international and national aid organisations present in the province, and was doing as much as possible in the areas secured by the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). She said the situation would only change when the war ended, when people and goods could move freely and it was possible to get adequate resources to the needy wherever they might be.

This means that Kuito is set to be the scene of tragedy for some time - at least until the 26-year-old war between the Angolan government and the UNITA rebel movement stops. Angolans everywhere, tired of war and poverty, are suffering. Statistics indicate that about a third - around 3.9 million - of Angola's 12 million people have been displaced by the conflict. Not all of them are within help's reach. A combination of inadequate infrastructure and funds, a lack of security and reported government corruption have left them to their own devices. Only about 1.2 million of these people benefit from international and government aid.

According to the latest OCHA statistics - notwithstanding that there is a continuous mass movement of people at any given time and that much of Angola is inaccessible to relief agencies - about 101,000 people were displaced from January to April this year. And while there are plans to reach still inaccessible communities and to expand humanitarian operations in the next few months, several difficulties lie ahead. Ensuring security is one of them, ensuring that an operation can be maintained logistically is another. The anticipation of more military action in coming months will also prove to be a challenge, according to security experts.

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