Angola
Food aid stuck in Angolan ports

afrol News, 30 August - Lives were being "put at risk in post-war Angola" because relief agencies lack the necessary resources to start moving large quantities of food immediately to avoid any break in food distributions over the coming months. Distribution will get even more difficult during the approaching rainy season.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned yesterday that food aid that had arrived Angola was not being distributed in the hunger-ravaged countryside. There were no ways of transporting the large quantities of food.

With the rainy season underway, many parts of the country are becoming increasingly inaccessible because of poor infrastructure. Although the government had committed itself to repairing roads, bridges and airstrips, much more still remains to be done. WFP said it was necessary to "immediately build up buffer stocks in several provinces, lasting up to three months, to avoid major hunger." 

Previously, the UN agency estimated that 1.5 million people would be in need of food aid up to December, but since the peace process, the situation has changed rapidly and WFP now expects 1.9 million people will be in need before the end of the year. "To meet this increase, a further 44,000 metric tons of food must arrive in Angola soon." 

The rise in the number of beneficiaries was caused by several factors, the UN agency said. The number of demobilised UNITA troops and their families was substantially higher than anticipated, and they needed food aid while being integrated into society. Also, there had been an acceleration in the return home of internally displaced people and refugees from neighbouring countries. All these people needed food assistance before starting to plant their crops and rebuilding their homes and livelihoods. 

Over recent months, 60 new locations in Angola had received WFP assistance, bringing an additional 426,000 beneficiaries onto the caseload. With more areas still to be assessed, this number would "continue to rise." The increase in the number of women and children entering nutritional programmes was also expected to rise this year - due to large areas of crops that were destroyed in the final stages of war. 

The agency warns that "a substantial number of people" would be needing food aid "to ensure that they do not eat the seeds they have saved in order to plant." These seeds were currently being distributed by aid organisations to returning displaced people to safeguard the next harvest. 

- If we see people suffering hunger, or worse, starvation, we must respond quickly to the changing conditions, says Francisco Roque Castro, newly-appointed Director for WFP in Angola. "Each life saved is a victory, but at this point we can only win if we get enough resources in the country." 

Immediate contributions were "vital" to enable WFP to undertake the pre-positioning of stocks to support Angolans until the next harvest. Presently, WFP reported it had "less than 22 percent of the funding for its operation in Angola." 

Sources: Based on WFP and afrol archives

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