New Namibian President visits Angola

Namibia’s newly elected President Hifikepunye Pohamba paid a visit to Angola on 28 and 29 April.  It was his first trip abroad since his inauguration.

According to a press release issued at the end of the visit, President Hifikepunye Pohamba congratulated the Angolan government for the consolidation of peace and democracy in the country and the efforts made in respect of reconstruction and national reconciliation since the Luena peace agreement of 4 April 2002.

The two Presidents stressed the good relations of political, diplomatic, economic, scientific and security cooperation between their countries and recommended that steps be taken to facilitate the movement of goods and people between Angola and Namibia.

The National Assembly finally passed the last law in the electoral package on 26 April. The law on the National Electoral Commission was passed by 120 votes with 60 against and three abstentions.

Disagreements voiced by the opposition had led to three successive postponements of the vote.

The National Electoral Commission will have eleven members, two appointed by the President of the Republic, six by the National Assembly, a judge elected by a plenary meeting of the Supreme Court, and two representing the Ministry of Territorial Administration and the National Information Council. The six appointed by the National Assembly, by a qualified two-thirds majority, will be three chosen by the majority party or coalition and three by the opposition.

The latest proposal put forward by the opposition had been that the National Electoral Council should be made up exclusively of people appointed by civil society, thereby ruling out any representative of the state.  This was seen by some as a way of postponing the approval of the electoral package indefinitely.

The other laws – the Election Law and laws on political parties, observers, code of conduct, registration, financing of political parties and the right to radio and television time - were approved on 12 April.

Paulo Tjipilica elected Ombudsman

The National Assembly elected Paulo Tjipilica as Ombudsman, on 19 April, by 177 votes in favour, none against and three abstentions.  Under the constitution, the role of the Ombudsman is to defend the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens and justice and legality in public administration.

Paulo Tjipilica, the former Minister of Justice, was elected for a four-year period, after which he can be re-elected for another four years.

The establishment of an Ombudsman was one of the recommendations of a seminar jointly organised by the National Assembly’s human rights commission and the UN human rights office in Luanda last December.

The seminar concluded that the Ombudsman should be ‘a credible individual accepted by all sectors of society’’.

Central African standby brigade to have 3,600 men

A meeting of the chiefs-of-staff of the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, which ended in Luanda on 14 April, decided that the Central African regional standby brigade should have 3,600 men.

The participants reviewed the defence and security situation in Central Africa and discussed the establishment of the general staff headquarters of the regional brigade and preparations for the Bahl El Ghazel 2005 multinational training exercise to be held in Chad.

The meeting was attended by the chiefs-of-staff of the eleven member states of ECCAS: Angola, Burundi, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and São Tomé and Principe.

Angola announced at the United Nations in Geneva on 8 April that it had deposited the instruments of ratification of two additional protocols to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child: the optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Addressing the 61^st session of the Human Rights Commission, at the Palais des Nations, Belo Mangueira, Chargé d’Affaires at

Angola’s permanent mission to the UN office in Geneva, said that by ratifying the two documents Angola was now a party to all the major international instruments for the protection of children’s rights.

He said it showed the Angolan government’s commitment to improving the economic and social conditions of children, in particular, and the population as a whole.

Angola ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.

Government sums up achievements of three years of peace

According to a government press statement issued on 4 April, Peace and National Reconciliation Day, about half a million Angolan refugees in neighbouring countries have returned home under the organised and voluntary programme since the signing of the peace agreement exactly three years ago.

During the same period, it said, the government gave priority to demining resettlement areas, removing mines, marking out mined areas and posting warning signs, mainly in the provinces of Huambo, Malanje and Kuando Kubango.

‘Efforts were also made in respect of action for the advancement of women and protection of the family,’ it continued, ‘as well as in respect of the youth and sports, encouraging the achievement of positive results in different areas.’

It said the government expected growth and development indicators in 2005 based to be based not only on oil production.

‘The development of the economy and the welfare of Angolans are closely bound up with what it plans to achieve in rural areas, through socially based agricultural and livestock programmes already in progress’, it continued.

Recovery in urban areas had been noteworthy, the statement said, especially in the provinces.  However, action and projects were underway to start to solve urban problems such as sanitation, water and electricity supplies and the need for social housing.

Angola’s exports attained US$10,530,764,911.24 in 2004, with oil and petroleum derivatives accounting for 91.92 percent of this sum. This was revealed in Luanda on 25 April by Rodrigo Mutunda, a representative of the National Directorate of Foreign Trade, during an address to a meeting of the advisory board of the Ministry of Trade.

He said that oil and derivatives had contributed US$9,679,513,658.17, followed by diamonds, which had amounted to US$784,695,637.87, the equivalent of 7.45 percent.

Fish had come in third place, with US$11,912,892 (0.11 percent), while non-ferrous scrap had earned US$4,741,726.80 (0.05 percent).  Goods like timber, cassava meal, seafood, hides and others had been exported for lesser amounts.

Rodrigo Mutunda said figures for coffee had not been included, since it was not controlled by the Ministry of Trade.

He regretted the absence of a functional system of information making it possible to monitor other sectors involved in foreign trade operations, adding that this also made serious investment in modernising technology and training human resources more difficult. 

There was also a need, he said, for a system for the constant monitoring of international market prices, so as to be able to detect dumping by ill-intentioned operators.

Efforts to boost agriculture

The government has financed the mechanised preparation of 2,000 hectares of land for the 2004-2005 agricultural year, which started last September. This work, carried out by Mecanagro, the national agricultural mechanisation company, will benefit 629,700 peasant families.

Paulo Uime, general secretary of Unaca, the National Union of Angolan Peasants, said the peasant families were glad the government had done this at no cost to them, since renting a tractor cost US$140 a hectare. He added that technicians from the Agricultural Development Institute, IDA, had distributed fertilisers, assorted seeds and farm implements, while members of Unaca were distributing half a hectare of land to each family.

Afonso Pedro Canga, director general of IDA, told the Angop news agency on 20 April that the agricultural extension and development programme approved by the government in 2004 will benefit 700,000 families in different municipalities and provinces of Angola this year.

The US$209 million programme, he said, involved agricultural production, the repair of community social facilities, marketing and training. An all-round programme, he said, it was aimed at boosting small rural industries, in order to increase the income of families and significantly reduce poverty and food insecurity.

During this first year, he continued, the major activity would be following the work of peasant farmers in the current agricultural year, while distributing farm tools, seeds and fertilisers.

Increased agricultural yields

João António Leitão, head of the agriculture department in Kwanza Norte Province, told the Angop news agency on 15 April that 13,462 peasant families in the municipality of Ambaca, with the support the government and NGOs, had achieved increased yields.  He added that 1,006 of them were organised in eight peasant associations.

During the 2003-2004 agricultural year, he said, the families - who included demobilised soldiers and 4,768 formerly war-displaced people - had grown crops on 3,795 hectares of land, 266 of which had been prepared by mechanical means.

This had enabled them to exceed the 150,000 tonnes of assorted produce forecast.  João António Leitão went on to say that, because this was family agriculture, 60 percent of the produce was for their own use and the remainder for marketing.

The government and NGO support, he said, consisted of preparing land and providing seeds, pesticides, tools and technical assistance.

Last year Ambaca, which is in the north of the province, received two electric pumps, a mill, eight wheelbarrows and other articles from the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

Peasant families in the commune of Cayave, municipality of Caimbambo, Benguela Province, produced 1,214 tonnes of crops between January and March this year.  Caluvundu Pedro, the soba, or traditional headman in Cayave, described the results as encouraging, but said they needed transport facilities.  Some of the peasants, he said, were taking such produce as maize, sweet potatoes and cassava to the market in the municipal seat on foot.

Owing to the restoration of stability, there was an abundance of maize and tubers in the region, where the population also raises cattle, goats and pigs.

Angola and South Africa sign agreement on livestock

Under an agreement signed in Luanda on 19 April, Angola and South Africa will combat infectious cattle diseases and seek to improve livestock. The agreement provides for cooperation in agriculture and livestock production, agri-business, the exchange of genetic material, personnel training, the development of irrigation and promoting contacts between appropriate private and public companies, as well as technical assistance, laboratory support, the exchange of technicians and research workers, and the exchange of information on technical and scientific research in both countries.

Angela Thako Didiza, South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, said her country was very interested in cooperation with Angola, which she thought was more advanced in the control of cattle pests.

Her Angolan counterpart Gilberto Buta Lutucuta said he felt the partnership was a great opportunity to strengthen relations between the two countries in this area, with a view not only to alleviating hunger and poverty in both countries, but to laying the foundations for regional integration among SADC countries.

He said current government efforts were centred on rebuilding economic facilities to support production, especially agriculture, and, in the medium term, significantly increasing the supply of basic produce to meet internal needs and create a surplus for export.

During her stay in Angola, the South African Minister visited Huíla Province, where she saw agricultural fields, schools, laboratories and the Tchivunguiro vocational school of agriculture.

Investors interested in mining sector

Makenda Ambroise, Deputy Minister of Mines and Geology, said on 18 April that proposals by many national and foreign investors interested in the areas of iron, copper and manganese were in the final stages of evaluation.

He said the authorities wanted to relaunch iron production in the Cassinga mines, Huíla Province, start extracting iron and manganese in Kwanza Norte and develop a copper project in the Mavoio mines in Uíje.

Speaking at the start of a series of events to mark World Miners’ Day on 27 April, he added that there would also be expansion in respect of ornamental stones, since there was great investor interest in granite and marble, while other industrial mineral resources would be developed to support national reconstruction.

The Minister said there had been substantial growth in the mining sector.

‘Though the main emphasis was on diamonds in the past, now diversification means that other resources are being invested in,’ he said, adding that this would create a sound and lasting mining sector that could meet the challenges of the reconstruction and industrialisation of the country.

Manuel Africano, Minister of Mines, stressed the substantial investment made in the mining sector over the past three years, which had increased state earnings and created new jobs.

Meanwhile, Abel João da Costa, director of energy, water, geology and mines in Huíla Province, said that exports of granite had earned US$4 million. He said the number of companies involved in the extractive industry in the province had increased from four to ten between 2001 and 2005, which was reflected in output rates and exports, as well as in the provision of jobs and technical training for more than 500,000 people.  The main purchasers of different types of Angolan granite, he said, were Spain, Canada, Portugal, Japan, South Africa and Panama.

A law on aquatic biological resources passed by the National Assembly sets out the principles and objectives of their use, the regulations governing fishing and the granting of fishing rights, special rules for the protection of aquatic resources and ecosystems, regulations on fishing vessels and ports, scientific research, the monitoring of resources and the licensing of fish processing and marketing establishments, as well as control and management, activities harmful to resources and ecosystems  and procedures for dealing with breaches of the law.

The preamble to the law stresses that the need for the conservation and sustainable renewal of aquatic biological resources requires the adoption by the state of appropriate measures to ensure that these resources are used in a responsible manner.

Government authorises agreement on Central African energy poor

The Council of Ministers has authorised the Minister of Energy and Water to sign a framework agreement on the inter-governmental Energy Pool for Central Africa

The resolution published in the Diário da República, the official gazette, says that this takes into consideration the advantages of cooperation in respect of electricity and the significant contribution it could make  to prosperity in the central region of the continent. A strategy is to be established for joint studies on resources that could be used both bilaterally and multilaterally.

The aim is to improve the reliability of the electricity system and the quality of services provided and to ensure the rapid growth of electrification in the region.

The standing commission of the Council of Ministers, meeting on 6 April, authorised the national diamond company, Endiama, to establish a partnership with China International Fund Limited, a company based in Hong Kong. The purpose of the company will be prospecting, extracting, marketing and polishing diamonds, as well as producing jewellery, in addition to other business permitted by the law in Hong Kong.

This will give Endiama a new international position enabling it to attract financing and investment in diamond prospecting and extracting, building facilities, training Angolan personnel and carrying out other economic and social projects.

Sonangol, the state oil company, and BP announced a new ultra-deep water oil strike, named Ceres 1,  in Block 31, about 360 km northeast of Luanda.  It was the sixth BP strike in Block 31 after Plutão, Saturno, Marte, Vénus and Palas.

Sonangol is the concessionaire and BP the operator in Block 31.  BP holds a 26.67 percent interest, Esso Exploration and Production Angola 25 percent, Sonangol 20 percent, Statoil Angola 13.33 percent, Marathon Petroleum Angola 10 percent and Tepa Limited 5 percent.

The Marburg virus

Deputy Minister of Health José Van-Dúnem said on 1 April that the specialists now working in Uíje had equipment enabling them to make on-the-spot tests for the Marburg virus, giving greater hope of controlling the disease. He went on to say that, owing to the contribution of Médecins Sans Frontières, the isolation of patients had also been improved.   MSF were also training clinical personnel to deal with the disease.

The Deputy Minister said the government saw no reason to isolate Uíje Province.  Since the disease was transmitted through body fluids, there was no technical reason for doing so, he said, and isolating the province would make it impossible to renew material and equipment and send doctors and other specialists there.

Meanwhile, 13 doctors and 90 medical technicians at the Luanda Sanatorium attended a seminar on 6 April on how to receive and attend to patients still suspected, after twenty-four hours, of having contracted the virus.  This was in response to an appeal from Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso to all health establishments to isolate suspected cases from other patients.  The Minister also called on all hospital personnel to consider themselves mobilised to join the units set up to control the epidemic, in any part of the country where they might be needed.

Deputy Minister José Van-Dúnem had revealed at a press conference the previous day that the number of dead had risen to 156 of the 181 cases registered in the county.  Although some had died in Cabinda, Luanda, Kwanza Norte and Malanje, he said, all of the cases had originated in Uíje Province.

He added that the World Health Organisation team in Uíje now included two medical anthropologists and there were two virologists and a data manager in Luanda, while the Angolan Armed Forces had provided an aircraft to facilitate the transport of equipment and material from Luanda to the city of Uíje and to seek out suspected cases in other parts of the province. ‘The public must be provided with information on the symptoms of the disease and on how it can be avoided,’ he stressed.

Addressing a meeting of journalists organised by Unicef in Luanda on 8 April, Filomena Wilson, head of the promotions office of the National Directorate of Public Health, stressed that information was the most important means of limiting the degree of contagion and, therefore, reducing the number of cases of viral infection.

She spoke of the need to avoid all contact with those affected and for thorough disinfection and boiling of their clothing and bed linen and disinfection of all transport facilities used. She went on to say that testing laboratories had already been set up in Uíje and Luanda which could provide results within six hours.

A national awareness campaign on the transmission, diagnosis and effects of  the haemorrhagic fever caused by the Marburg virus was launched on 10 April by the emergency commission set up to deal with the disease.

António Bento Cangulo, governor of Uíje Province, appealed to the population of the city of Uíje to cooperate with the team of international doctors by reporting suspected cases. He made the appeal during a meeting with inhabitants of the Quixicongo, Papelão and Caquiuia neighbourhoods at which he said that the lack of cooperation was contributing to the spread of the disease.

Referring to a fall in the number of deaths in the central hospital, he said:  ‘There are few cases in the hospital now, and the dead bodies we are registering come from people’s houses.’ He added that conditions had been created in the isolation ward at the hospital to enable relatives to visit infected people.

Meanwhile, the Medical Faculty of Agostinho Neto University held a conference for doctors and students on the Marburg virus. Albano Ferreira, assistant dean of the faculty, said a number of lecturers from the faculty and from the Nursing School and Science Faculty were to join the Marburg virus working group.

A group of 25 Angolan and foreign journalists left Luanda for a visit to Uíje on 14 April, taking with them bio-safety material and medicines.

Pascoal Solo, coordinator of the local commission in Uíje set up to combat the disease, said that the behaviour of the local population was making the situation more difficult.  Some people who distrusted the measures taken to contain the disease were being rebellious and treating infected people at home, greatly increasing the risk of it spreading.

During this entire period, there were daily updates on the number of cases. The figure given on 30 April was 273 registered cases and 253 deaths.

Speaking in Uíje on 29 April, Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso said the disease was under control and work was now needed to eradicate it.

National Institute to Combat Aid

Under a decree recently promulgated by the Council of Ministers, a National Institute to Combat Aids is to be set up. 

In addition to being the technical body responsible for the implementation of Ministry of Health policy on sexually transmitted diseases, the institute is to propose standards for clinical action, laboratory work, research, teaching and labour, while coordinating training, information, education, counselling, monitoring sources of contagion and the spread of the pandemic, and cooperating with international institutions.

It was meanwhile reported that the Lucrécia Paim Maternity Hospital in Luanda had started a programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

The programme includes free testing for HIV, consultations with specially trained medical staff and medicines. It makes it possible to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission from 53 percent to less than 2 percent. Training teams for the programme was started in November last year and conditions have been created to treat patients in what is considered the biggest maternity hospital in the country, where there are more than 22,000 births a year.

Enádio Moraes Filho, superintendent of the Brazilian cooperation programme in the area of combating Aids and other endemic diseases, said that this was not just a project, but an activity that would become routine in hospitals catering for pregnant women.

Combating malaria

The main rally to mark Malaria in Africa Day was held on 25 April in the town of Uíje. It was addressed by Deputy Minister of Health José Van-Dúnem. Uíje was chosen because malaria is endemic in the province and also as an act of solidarity with the victims of the Marburg virus affecting the region. The Deputy Minister told the press before leaving for Uíje that his Ministry had a strategic programme for 2005-2009 aimed at drastically reducing malaria mortality rates. ‘We have about three million clinical cases of malaria a year and by the end of that period we want to reduce the number to 900,000 cases,’ he said.

The Jornal de Angola reported on 23 April that Unicef had donated to the Ministry of Health more than half a million mosquito nets treated with insecticide to be distributed to people in the country’s 51 municipalities, giving priority to places with the highest incidence of malaria ,mainly in rural areas.

This was announced at a meeting in Luanda of the National Programme for Malaria Control to launch the distribution and to inform partners of the need for greater involvement in the programme, as part of the malaria control project financed by the UN’s Global Fund against Aids, TB and malaria.

José Van-Dúnem, Deputy Minister of Health, said the Global Fund had allocated US$28 million for this purpose. The programme also had the support of the WHO in respect of the distribution of anti-malarials.

Felix António, the municipal representative of the Angolan Red Cross, CVA, said that the CVA had distributed 3,260 mosquito nets treated with insecticide in Dondo and the commune of Massangano, Kwanza Norte Province, between March 2004 and 20 April this year.  He said this action, carried out in partnership with Unicef, was aimed at preventing malaria in areas of the municipality where it was regarded as endemic, targeting children under five and pregnant women.

The programme was being carried out by fifteen CVA volunteers and would continue indefinitely, with another 1,240 nets to be distributed this month.  This was a time, he said, conducive to mosquito breeding, owing to last month’s flooding in Dondo and Massangano.

Almost 105,000 weapons collected

The national police have collected a large number of weapons that were in the possession of civilians. This was announced on 19 April by Osvaldo Serra Van-Dúnem, Minister of the Interior, during a debate in the National Assembly on the disarming of the population.

‘The government takes the question of collecting weapons that are in the hands of civilians very seriously,’ he said.  ‘We have already collected    104,683 weapons from all over the country.’

He said the police would be able to ensure the success of the next elections, organisationally, technically and materially. 

The Minister assured deputies that Ministry of the Interior personnel were being made fully aware of the importance of the elections and that ‘nothing is more important to us than protecting lives and property’. Even the most sceptical deputies, he said, should believe that the government was disarming the civilian population with a high sense of responsibility, over and above any partisan attitudes.

Animal vaccination in Huíla Province

João Estevão, head of the local veterinary services in the municipality of Chibia, 42km from Lubango, told the Angop news agency on 8 April that about 16,600 head of cattle had been vaccinated against various diseases in the past 26 days, while 123 dogs were vaccinated against rabies.

He said that eighteen technicians working in eight mobile brigades had done the vaccinating in Chibia. The municipality of Chibia has an estimated 125,000 head of cattle.

Angolan companies win gold medals

Angolan companies were awarded five gold medals at a meeting of the Foundation for Excellence in Business Practice, FEBP, held in Geneva from 31 March to 2 April.

The medals were given to officials from the Guefacic financial, agricultural, livestock, commercial, industrial and consultancy group - the Sagrada Esperança Clinic, the

Prenda Hospital, the Elizângela Filomena College and the Petroleum and Diplomatic Corps Hospital.

Tiago João Pires Antunes ‘Pinto’, vice-president of Guefacic, said the companies, selected from among 60 in the world, had been given the award because they fulfilled the necessary requirements of good governance, management transparency, good management of human resources, protection of the environment and use of modern technology.

The companies concerned automatically become members of the FEBP, an international organization created in France which has its headquarters in Geneva.

‘Angola was always seen in Geneva as a country without transparency,’ Tiago João Pires Antunes said, ‘but fortunately the actual facts  are now being recognized, not only for private firms but for public ones too.’

About 270,000 illegal diamond miners deported

34,500 Angolan refugees to return from Zambia this year

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, in coordination with the Angolan and Zambian governments, plans to repatriate 34,500 Angolan refugees in

Zambia between May and December this year, according to António Nascimento, press attaché at the Angolan Embassy in Zambia. He said that after the tripartite Angola-Zambia-UNHCR meeting held on 6 and 7 April, conditions for their return would be guaranteed.

They would be travelling by land and by air, with 239 flights to various parts of the country.  He added that the World Food Programme and International Organisation for Migration had given assurances of support.

António Nascimento said the meeting had also reviewed the voluntary repatriation of Angolans in Zambia in 2004, an estimated 27,000, and employment prospects in 2006.

Mine clearance boosted

Leonardo Severino Sapalo, director-general of the National Demining Institute, Inad, has said that three years of peace in Angola had had very beneficial effects, especially in respect of mine clearance.  He said that following the signing of the Luena Memorandum of Understanding on 4 April 2002, demining operations had taken on fresh momentum.

The situation had further improved, he added, as a result of mine awareness education, leading to a gradual reduction in the number of mine accidents affecting both persons and vehicles.

Things could be better, however, he said, since demining organisations had more money when the peace agreement was signed; unlike now, when there were fewer financial contributions.

Peace Day marked in Benguela Province

The municipality of Bocoio, 110km from the city of Benguela, celebrated the third anniversary of peace with a rally addressed by Minister of Defence Kundy Paihama.

The Minister also inaugurated a primary school, a secondary school, health posts and two markets, all of which were built by the Social Support Fund and financed by the World Bank.

Minister of Transport André Luís Brandão, who inaugurated a desalination plant in the port of Lobito for supplying berthed ships with water, was also a member of the delegation of central and local government officials headed by the Minister of Defence.  He stressed the importance of the port of Lobito for the economic development of the southern region of Africa.

As part of the commemorations, the Inter-ecclesiastical Committee for Peace in Angola held an ecumenical service in the Benguela cathedral conducted by Ilda Valério, a woman priest.

Water supply projects in Cabinda

The water department in the northern province of Cabinda is to invest about US$2 million this year in projects to increase the supply of clean water.  João Baptista Franque, head of the provincial water department, said the money would be spent on rehabilitating and repairing the existing system and building a sub-station to increase water pressure.

Clean water supply systems will also be built in the villages of Talibeca and Talicuma, both places where people who had gone to Bumelambuto because of the war have been resettled.

He said the water supply to the city of Cabinda had recently been increased, owing to the repair of systems that had stopped working owing to the lack of pumps.

New education facilities

The Benguela government has spent US$49,800 on the rehabilitation of a building, as part of a programme started in 2000 to expand local university education in the province. The building, a former secondary school, was inaugurated by provincial governor Dumilde das Chagas Rangel on 1 April.  Courses will be given there on special education, information technology, law and management. A pre-university centre has been opened in Balombo,

Benguela Province, with a capacity to take in 300 students in three shifts.  The new centre inaugurated by Francisco Montenegro, the municipal administrator, has two classrooms, two offices, a secretariat, a residence and a sports area. Courses will be provided in social sciences.

Inácio Chitonga, director of the centre, told the Angop news agency on 5 April that during the first academic year started that same day, classes would be given by seven teachers.

Three hundred and fifty teachers were selected from among 580 applicants in Andulo, Bié Province, in early April.   Maria Lucia Chicapa, the municipal administrator, said they would join the 550 existing teachers in the municipality and make it possible to expand education in places where there were no teachers and reduce the number of children outside the education system.

The number of children enrolled for the current school year is 125,000, with about 75,000 still outside the education system, owing to the shortage of teachers and classrooms.  About 1,000 teachers and classrooms, as well as teaching materials would be needed to solve the situation, she said.

More than 100 students were enrolled in a pre-university school opened in Longonjo, Huambo Province, on 11 April.

Jeremias Pataca Victor, the municipal administrator, said the establishment of the school would lessen the difficulties faced by students, who had previously had to go to Ukuma or Caála to attend classes.

UNDP to finance poverty reduction programmes

Zépherin Diabré, assistant administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, has said that his agency will be spending US$40 million over the next four years on programmes aimed at reducing poverty Angola.

On his arrival in Luanda on 3 April for a three-day visit to Angola, he said the money would be spent on education on Aids, the setting up of small and medium-sized businesses, the environment, public sector and legal system reform, mine clearance and the reintegration of former soldiers.

His programme included meetings with President José Eduardo dos Santos, Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, the Ministers of Planning, Territorial Administration, External Relations and Public Administration, Employment and Social Security, as well as representatives of the international donor community and UN agencies.

Giant sable antelope located in Malanje

Photographs of the giant sable antelope, an animal it was feared had disappeared from Angola, were presented on 1 April.  They had been taken in the past few months by infrared cameras mounted in trees in the Kangandala Park, Malanje Province.

The cameras were installed in November 2004 by an expedition organised by the scientific research department of the Catholic University of Angola and involving also a team of research workers from South Africa and representatives of the Malanje local government and the Kissama Foundation. The work was supported by the United Nations Development Programme. Pedro Vaz Pinto, director of the Kissama Foundation, told the Angop news agency that the cameras were installed permanently in the trees and technicians went there every month to collect the films.

Cristovão da Cunha, governor of Malanje Province, presented the evidence at a press conference attended by local leaders, members of the Kissama Foundations and the Ecological Youth of Angola, and Angolan and foreign journalists.

There had been no proof of the continued existence of the giant sable antelope since 1982, when the last photograph of one was taken, and it was feared that it had become extinct because of the war. An animal found only in Angola, the giant sable, or palanca negra, has become an emblem of the country.   A national football team has adopted its name and its head is the image on the tails of Angola Airlines aircraft.

First discovered in 1909, the giant sable is so rare and unique that it has been on international lists of protected animals since 1933.

National meeting on theatre

Boaventura Cardoso, Minister of Culture, has stressed the need to show plays on television. Speaking on 18 April, at the opening of the 3^rd national meeting on the theatre, he said there were quality plays which could be shown to a wider audience through TV, as had been done some years ago.

He said the quality of plays was more important than the quantity, and spoke of the work done by the Ministry to revive creative freedom and innovation, including through the training of actors.

The meeting, attended by delegates from the country’s eighteen provinces, sought to set out strategies for improving theatre in the country, identifying the problems, suggesting action to improve the organisation of theatrical groups and promote technical improvements and courses for directors and actors.  They also discussed ways of making the theatre profitable and self-sufficient and suggested the kind of support to be given to theatrical groups.