Angola 155,000 children die every year of hunger and disease
Luanda (Fides Service) - Angola is a country devastated by 37 years of civil war. In 2002 a peace agreement was signed by the UNITA rebels and the government. However years of war left the country in a pitiful state; roads and bridges destroyed, millions of refugees, and 15 million anti-personnel mines. With a population of 12,000,000 Angola has more mines than people. The mines are the greatest danger: sown without a map they render vast areas of land uncultivable. In fact only 3% of Angola's fertile soil is cultivated. Rains move the mines rendering newly sown fields suddenly inaccessible. In addition there are more than 70,000 mutilated persons dependent on their families and who cannot help with harvesting crops in the few remaining fields.
The demobilisation of the UNITA rebels produced thousands of homeless people. Former soldiers and their families uprooted from their native villages have no means of subsistence and depend entirely on international assistance, local sources tell Fides Service. "At present there are 1,160,000 internally displaced persons in refugee camps assisted by the UN World Food Programme. The figure has risen by 11.5% in recent months. We have had to reduce food rations because the numbers increase daily. The greatest difficulty is delivering food supplies to every corner of the country. It is scandalous that people die of hunger in a country that could have a flourishing agriculture."
To feed 1,160,000 people in need the international community has already assigned 241 million dollars (of which only one third 80 million have been paid) to buy and distribute 305,000 tons of food. "However this is not enough - another source tells Fides Service -. "This year an estimated 250,000 Angolans are expected to return from neighbouring countries where they fled to escape war. This means that the number of persons relying on international aid will increase to 1.9 million and they will need about 500,000 tons of food. It is estimated however that due to the poor conditions of local farming in 2003 between 2.2 million and 2.4 million people will need international aid. This means the quantity of food required will rise to 630,000 tons."
The local Church is doing everything possible to help these people who lack shelter, food, medicines. The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference is distributing funds and basic essentials collected in dioceses and parishes. This is generous solidarity on the part of the people, but alone it cannot suffice.
The Church in Angola makes an urgent appeal for international aid to save these people. Local sources explain the situation. "Some people have returned to their villages and a few camps have been closed, but their return is not easy. They reached their villages in the middle of the rainy season which gave them no time to sow for the next harvest: these people risk starvation. The local Church strives to provide some aid: food, clothing, basic essentials, tools and seeds. The aim is to help them settle down to day to day living and to provide for their own needs and not have rely on foreign assistance".
The work of the Church in this area of assistance is very important considering that international humanitarian agencies manage to serve only between 5% and 10% of the national territory. UNICEF has asked Catholic missions and parishes all over the country to help with the campaign to provide chickenpox vaccination to all children that will start in April. The food emergency strikes a country with a very high infant mortality rate. One of every four children dies before the age of five and this means that every year in Angola 155,000 children under five die of hunger or preventable diseases such as chickenpox and whooping cough. Aware of the situation the Church in Angola helps medical teams to vaccinate as many children as possible, persuading hesitant parents to put aside cultural taboos. (Fides Service 28/1/2003)
Here are some tables on food production and food needs in Angola >> (file doc)