President dos Santos visits Brazil and Argentina

He had talks with President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, to whom he reaffirmed his wish to see Brazil become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, while also welcoming Brazil’s international efforts aimed at the restructuring of world trade in the interests of the less developed countries.

Stressing that Angola’s major priority was to ensure education for everyone, he said that, owing to the common language, Brazil could play a decisive role in this respect.

President dos Santos said that Mercosul (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) and SADC had ‘already seen the advantages of expanding and strengthening ties across the South Atlantic’. 

This, he said, would enable both African peoples and the peoples of Brazil and other Latina American countries to take stronger positions in international forums on an equal footing with the most developed countries. 

President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva guaranteed Brazil’s support for the holding of an international donor conference for the reconstruction of Angola. He recalled that Brazil was the first country in the world to recognise Angola after its independence in 1975. 

Welcoming the new Angolan law on investments, he said it was an added incentive for business people attracted by an economy that was growing by more than 10 percent a year and with falling inflation. ‘This is why Brazil is significantly increasing its credit lines for the export of Brazilian goods and services to Angola,’ he said, adding that ‘as from this year, Angola will have resources in keeping with its enormous requirements for national reconstruction’. 

A financial agreement was signed on mechanisms to improve the timescales and method of repayment of Angola’s US$950 million debt to Brazil. 

Brazil will lend Angola US$580 million over the next three years, to be guaranteed by the supply of 20,000 barrels of oil a day to Brazil. The future debt will be repaid with oil earnings and any money left over will be returned to Angola. Other agreements were in the areas of geology and mines, public administration, the judiciary and health.   

During the President’s two-day visit to Argentina, agreements were signed on trade, agriculture, and political cooperation between the foreign ministries of Angola and Argentina. There was also a protocol of intent on more dynamic cooperation between Sonangol and Enarsa, the oil companies of the two countries.  

Minister of External Relations João Bernardo de Miranda, who was a member of the presidential delegation, described Argentina as a ‘great power’ in the area of agriculture and livestock and said Angola could greatly benefit from its experience, especially in expanding mechanised agriculture. He added that Angola would soon be opening a diplomatic mission in Buenos Aires.       

During his stay, President dos Santos had a meeting with President Nestor Kirchner. He also addressed senators and congressmen at the Congress of the Nation. 

In Washington on 14 May, during a three-day visit to the United States, President dos Santos had a meeting with Abdoulaye Bio Tchané, director of the Africa department of the International Monetary Fund. 

They discussed economic measures taken in Angola and the President described the current situation in the country. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to transparent management of public resources, within the framework of good governance and the consolidation of democracy.

Dos Santos also had meetings at the World Bank and with representatives of ExxonMobil, Chevron and Boeing.

Funds from World Bank and European Commission

The World Bank and the European Commission are providing US$335 million for the period 2005-2006. The two institutions signed four agreements (three donations and a loan) with the Angolan government on 18 May, totalling US$145.7 million.

A financing agreement worth US$50.7 million is for the first phase of a multi-sector emergency rehabilitation project, a soft loan for the rehabilitation of facilities. The programme provides for an additional US$200 million to be paid in 2006.  Interest rates are about 1.5 percent and the reimbursement period may be up to 50 years.

The donations include US$57 million (€45 million) for the Social Support Fund, Fas, to be provided by the EU and managed by the World Bank. This is one of the largest contributions to Angola from the European Development Fund.   The total for this third phase of the Fas will be US$125 million.

The other donations are for a project on HIV/Aids, Malaria and TB, worth US$21 million, and US$17 million for the general demobilisation and reintegration project.

Minister of Planning Ana Dias Lourenço, who signed the agreements on behalf of the government, stressed that all the projects were aimed at combating poverty.

The World Bank director for Angola and Mozambique, Michael Baxter, said that this was merely the start of cooperation that would result in the signing of more agreements.  This was also the view of Glauco Calzuola, head of the EU office in Angola, who also signed a supplementary administrative agreement with the World Bank director. The two institutions agreed to establish a trust fund to finance projects for vulnerable groups, to benefit 30,000 people.

Agreements signed with Chinese Exim Bank

The government and Exim Bank signed twelve financing agreements in Luanda on 16 May for the sectors of information, agriculture and energy and water.

Su Zhong, vice-president of Exim Bank, who was in Angola for a three-day visit within the framework of the US$2 billion granted to the government by the bank, signed the agreements with Minister of Finance Pedro de Morais.

Bastos de Almeida, spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, said the agreements completed the first phase of the financing, involving US$1 billion of the total amount.

During his stay, Su Zhong had a meeting with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos ‘Nandó’, as well as visiting the workshops of the Luanda Railway, which is being rehabilitated by Chinese companies.

Under an agreement signed with Exim Bank in March 2004, the US$2 billion credit line is, to be reimbursed in twelve years. It is the main source of funding for the government’s 2005-2007 public investment programme, especially for the construction and rehabilitation of economic and social facilities destroyed in the war.

The three projects already in progress, worth a total of US$72.6 million, are boosting the Luanda electricity supply, buying tractors, agricultural implements and equipment for the repair of tertiary roads, and buying 1,500 heavy duty vehicles to be given to people who lost theirs during the armed conflict.

Among the eighteen projects awaiting approval, totalling US$886.8 million, is the building of eighteen polytechnic institutes, seventeen vocational institutes and eighteen secondary schools, the rehabilitation of the water supply systems in Luanda and Huambo, the modernisation of four agricultural belts on urban boundaries and the repair of the Luanda-Negage road in Uíje Province.

Contracts still being negotiated, all in the area of health, include the building of ten health centres and six municipal hospitals and the rehabilitation of four provincial hospitals.

Stabilising the currency and relaunching the economy

The great challenge faced by the Angolan government now that peace had been achieved was to consolidate the programme of macroeconomic and currency stability, so as to be able to relaunch the non-oil economy in the country.

This was stated in Luanda by Aguinaldo Jaime, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, at the opening on 4 April of a symposium on trade between Angola and the United States organised by the Chambers of Commerce of the two countries.

He stressed that the consolidation of democracy, national reconciliation and economic stability were guarantees for investors.   In the past, he said, there was great macroeconomic instability and the financial system was largely confined to speculative business, which was conducive to price differences between the formal and informal markets of sometimes 100 percent. Now, he continued, the average difference between the two markets was between one and a quarter percent, which had created confidence, so that people who had savings abroad were depositing them in Angola.

Conscious of this fact, the Minister said, the government had been implementing an ambitious programme of rehabilitating economic and social facilities destroyed in the war. However, financing this programme required vast amounts of capital it did not have.  Hence the importance of a donor conference, though there were some in the donor community who said the conditions for this did not exist.

Also addressing the symposium, José Patrício, BP president in Angola, said that the volume of trade in Angola of the oil multinational will attain US$8 million over the next few years, owing to development projects in the exploration and production of crude oil. He said that BP had a long-term commitment to Angola, which was why it was making big investments.

He said that, through its experience, technology and volume of investments, BP hoped to become a force for progress in Angola, since it would be senseless not to create a mutually advantageous framework to benefit those who had granted them the privilege of working in the country.  This, he said, was a responsibility of all  major investors in Angola.

‘We all have an important role to help Angola’s development,’ he said, adding that the benefits from BP’s presence were shown by the revenues for the state from production sharing agreements and the taxes paid by the oil industry.  Other benefits were the Angolanisation of the work force and management, the transfer of know-how, the development of local industries and social and economic projects.

José Patrício went on to say that more participation in the oil industry by local firms in support of the oil industry would create more job opportunities, increase competition in the provision of services and, therefore, lead to the reduction of costs.

Chevron to invest US$ 9 billion

Chevron is to invest US$9 billion in three projects in Angola:  Sanha gas concentrate, Benguela, Belize, Lobito and Tomboco (BBLT) in Block 14 and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). This was announced by James Blackwell, director general of Chevron in Angola, at a press conference in Luanda on 3 May to report on the oil company’s achievements in 2004.

The Sanha condensate project, he said, in Block 0, offshore from Cabinda, would cost US$1.9 billion and was aimed at reducing the burning of gas in Blocks 0 and 14.  In Block 14, where US$2.2 billion was being invested, the highest output expected was 200,000 barrels a day.

With regard to reducing the flaring of gas, he said, Chevron and Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company, would develop the LNG project at a cost of US$5 billion. The gas, which would otherwise be flared, would be collected and transported to an LNG plant to be built near Soyo.

James Blackwell went on to say that oil production in 2004 had been 477,000 barrels a day and that there would be a 50 percent increase by 2007.

He said that last year alone, Chevron had spent US$259 million on business with local firms.

With regard to human resources, he said, 88 percent of Chevron’s employees were Angolans, in a clear response to the need for Angolanisation, and the number of expatriates had been reduced by 232 since 2001. Seventy-three percent of the professional management posts were held by Angolans, he continued, and it was expected that 90 percent of technical and management posts would be held by Angolans by 2010.

Speaking at a seminar attended by journalists later in the month, Adelino Amado, a senior Chevron official, said that last year the American oil company had spent US$259 million on goods and services from Angolan companies, an increase of 22 percent over the previous year.

Apart from agricultural projects in Cabinda, from which the company acquired a large part of the food for its headquarters in Malongo, he said, Chevron had contributed to the revival and strengthening of 30 peasant associations in the central highlands, leading to a 30 percent increase in output over 2003.

National forestry campaign opened in Kwanza Norte

The 2005 national forestry campaign was officially opened in Dondo, Kwanza Norte Province, on 5 May, by Daniel Dário Katata, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. He urged those operating in the sector to continue to invest in forestry, so as to boost the national economy and reduce unemployment.

The Deputy Minister  went on to say  that the current annual production of timber in Angola was about 500,000 cubic metres, which represented 10 percent of national revenue. There are 53 million hectares of forests in Angola.

During the ceremony, which was attended by Henrique Júnior, the provincial governor, Tomas Caetano, national director of the Forestry Development Institute, representatives of timber companies and local people, three trees were planted as part of a replanting programme for the town of Dondo.

World Bank to support agricultural research

Gilberto Buta Lutucuta, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said in Huambo on 20 May that the World Bank would be spending US$1.7 million this year on research, personnel training and seed multiplication projects in Huambo Province.

Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Huambo with a delegation that included officials from the World Bank and the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, he said the visit could produce good results in the areas of agricultural and veterinary research.

The Minister promised that he would soon help the Agricultural Science Faculty to acquire tractors for students’ practical classes.   He also expressed his satisfaction at the development of the food technology centre in Huambo, which preserves and transforms agricultural produce, saying:

‘I think we are making a serious investment in agro-industry, using national produce and local technology,’  he said.

He also spoke well of the Agricultural Development Station in Caála, while stressing that more work was needed if all municipalities were to have similar conditions. The conditions at the Caála station, he said, encouraged people to work outside the city to develop other places.

Michael Baxter, the World Bank representative in Angola and Mozambique, said the bank would help the Angolan government to rebuild the country, providing support for agriculture, education, health and personnel training.

Before leaving Huambo, the delegation visited the Agricultural Science Faculty, where they were briefed on how it was run and on the need to rehabilitate the experimental farm, repair the laboratories and acquire tractors, farm tools, irrigation systems, farm animals, fertilisers and pharmaceutical products.

Efforts to boost agriculture

A World Bank delegation headed by John McIntire, sector director for the environment and socially sustainable development, visited the central highlands in May to see local potential for boosting agriculture.

Speaking after a meeting with John McIntire, Minister Gilberto Buta Lutucuta said that most of the country’s agricultural production came from family farming. The project they had discussed, he said, was aimed at overcoming the difficulties faced by family farms, while developing extension and rural development activities, as well as other social and economic activities in rural areas.

The Huambo provincial government is preparing for the 2005-2006 agricultural year, which starts in September.   Joaquim António, local director of agriculture and rural development, said the government had allocated 63 million kwanzas for the acquisition of maize, bean and vegetable seeds, and would provide more funds for programmes related to seed multiplication, animal health and reproduction, developing soya bean and coffee production and reforestation. The agricultural year is expected to involve more than 318,000 families in the province’s eleven municipalities.

Insufficient fertilisers, tractors and vehicles to transport produce from the countryside to the major urban centres are among the difficulties affecting agriculture in Huambo Province.

Central government has allocated US$219,870 to help farmers in Uíje Province in the 2004-2005 agricultural year.  Pedro Malungo, provincial director of agriculture and rural development, said the money would be spent on ox-drawn ploughs and seeds and other agricultural inputs. He added that the government had also provided 10 tonnes of maize seeds, ten tonnes of beans and sorghum, 20,000 hoes, 10,000 machetes, 10,000 axes and ploughs. His department, he said, had cleared 500 hectares of land by mechanical means, so that sowing could begin this year.

Peasants in the Muinha valley, Kamacupa, Bié Province, will harvest 50 tonnes of rice this year, through a pilot seed multiplication project, ten tonnes more than initially forecast. Provincial governor José Amaro Tati said during a visit to the project that the government planned similar projects to produce rice and other cereals in the region.

He expressed concern, however, about the lack of equipment permitting better and more rapid harvesting than the machetes that would be used.

Marburg disease under control

The daily report of the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation on 4 May stated that there had been no new cases of the haemorrhagic fever caused by the Marburg virus in the past 24 hours and that there was only one case in the Uíje hospital, who was recovering.

Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso confirmed this at a press conference in Luanda, on his return from seven days in Uíje Province.  He thanked all the Angolans and foreigners who were working there and continuing to search for cases among communities in the province. He regretted the fact that the inhabitants of a Uíje neighbourhood, Pedreira, were ignoring the Ministry’s guidelines, persisting in embracing and kissing their dead loved ones and handling their clothes.  This was one of the neighbourhoods where there were still cases of the disease.

Speaking in Uíje, Colonel Pascoal Folo, the military doctor coordinating the emergency commission to combat the disease, said that increased protective measures and the active search for cases, together with greater local compliance with advice given by the health authorities, had helped to reduce the number of cases.

Meanwhile, the Angolan Red Cross sent a team of twenty-two volunteers to Uíje to do public awareness work and distribute disinfectants, soap and other products.

Addressing a press conference on 9 May, Deputy Minister of Health José Van-Dúnem said that the fact that there were traditional healers in the awareness mobilisation teams had dispelled the beliefs of local people who thought the disease was caused by cultural factors and rejected the advice of specialists. After six traditional healers had died of the disease, he said, people realised that no one who did not take the precautions recommended by health workers was safe from contamination.

After a meeting with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos ‘Nandó’ on 17 May, Fatoumata Diallo, the WHO representative in Angola, said: ‘The situation is now under control. The epidemic is confined to a few places in Uíje and there are none in the rest of the country.’ 

She went on to say that she disagreed with the position taken by Fifa, which wished to postpone a football match between the Angolan and Algerian national teams, or have it held elsewhere.

‘The WHO has never declared a state of quarantine in Angola,’ she said. ‘The country is open to all people who want to come or leave.  So we ask Fifa to request technical reports from us, because we are the organisation that guarantees health and health safety for the population of the world, including sportsmen.’ 

Deputy Minister José Van-Dúnem left for Uíje two days later at the head of a delegation, to see what was happening in neighbourhoods where there was still resistance to protective measures.

‘We are going to speak to the people, to opinion-making traditional chiefs and neighbourhood officials and ask them to help make residents understand that the situation is serious and they must comply with the rules imposed by the virus.  We need everyone to help.’

Speaking in Uíje on 20 May, José Van-Dúnem stressed the need for stepped up mobilisation and active searches in communities, to ‘cut the chain of transmission and eradicate the disease’.

He said the Uíje hospital had improved significantly, with the arrival of another twelve doctors and more equipment two days earlier, and announced that a team of hospital administrators from the Ministry of Health and armed forces would be arriving the following week to boost the local health services.

Back in Luanda, at the regular meeting with the WHO, the Deputy Minister said the people in Uíje were now far more aware of how to prevent the disease, since churches, women’s organisations, the Red Cross and traditional chiefs were now engaged in giving them information.

‘It was a visit of many meetings,’ he said, ‘with chiefs, organisations and traditional healers, who gave me leaves they said were a good cure, and I brought them so that they can be sent to international laboratories for analysis.’

On his departure for Uíje on 25 May, Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso said he was going there because the Ministry wanted to make a ‘final assault’ on the disease, as well as to assess the African Development Bank’s general health programme for the province.

The US$8 million programme includes the construction and repair of municipal and communal hospitals and personnel training.

The daily report, on 30 May, stated that there had been a total of 360 cases of infection by the Marburg virus, 325 of whom had died.

Another 12,000 refugees to return by October

Malungo Germano, information officer of the UN refugee agency in Angola, said in Luanda on 24 May that another 12,000 Angolans living in South Africa and neighbouring countries would be returning under the aegis of the UNHCR by October this year. The repatriation of refugees in South Africa, DR Congo, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe was partially suspended in October 2004 because of heavy rains and the bad state of roads.

‘The agreement we have with the government ends in October and operations stop after that,’ he said. ‘Those who want to return afterwards will have to do so on their own account, unless there is another agreement.’

Malungo Germano said that in order to facilitate the reintegration of returnees, the UNHCR, in partnership with the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration, Minars, was providing them with building materials, seeds, farm tools, vegetable oil, soap and cooking utensils.

By May 2005, the UNHCR, in partnership with Minars and the support of the governments of the USA, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland, and the Total and Statoil oil companies, had provided for the return to Angola of 308,578 refugees.

World Food Programme needs US$18 million for 2005

Manuel Cristovão, the WFP information officer, said in Luanda on 18 May that the WFP needed US$18 million to assist one million needy Angolans until the end of this year.  The money, he said, was to buy 27,000 tonnes of assorted goods, including grain, vegetable oil, sugar and vegetables.

Over the past two years, he said, the international community had reduced donations of goods and money, which had made it necessary to decrease the amount of food distributed, especially in the interior of the country. ‘We have reduced by half the amount that those assisted usually receive,’ he said.

Manuel Cristovão went on to speak of the difficulties faced by the WFP in distributing food, owing to a shortage of its own vehicles, the bad state of roads and landmines. As a result, they had been chartering planes from private companies.

After the signing of the peace agreement between the government and Unita in April 2002, he said, the number of people needing assistance had been gradually falling, and it was expected to fall further with the increased  harvests in July.

He said that the Angolan government had given the WFP US$4 million in early 2004 and would be providing another US$3 million at the end of the year for the purchase of food.

The WFP closed its offices in the eastern border areas of Luau and Alto Zambeze, Moxico Province on 16 May, owing to a lack of funds. José Kindo, head of the WFP base in Luau, lamented the fact that the decision coincided with the resumption of the programme of repatriating Angolan refugees from DR Congo and Zambia. He added, however, that the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, and the World Lutheran Federation would provide humanitarian aid for the returnees.

He said that in three years of work in the two localities, the WFP had provided support for about 200,000 people with its ‘work for food’ programme. It had also distributed essential articles, implements and seeds to returnees and other vulnerable groups.

More than 1,000 weapons handed in in Bié

More than 1,000 assorted firearms in the possession of civilians were handed in to the national police in Bié Province in the last three months.

This was revealed on 17 May by Albano Adriano, head of the information and analysis department of the local Ministry of the Interior department.

He said the voluntary handing in of weapons and, therefore, the disarming of civilians, was going well.  As a result of the awareness work done by the police in communities, he said, people understood the reasons for collecting unauthorised weapons.

The process would continue, so as to guarantee security and tranquillity in communities, Albano Adriano concluded, and he appealed to community leaders, churches and other groups to stress the need for people to hand in weapons.

Tuberculosis hospital in Namibe to open in June

Francisco Munana, director of the Office of Studies, Planning and Statistics in Namibe Province, said the new tuberculosis hospital will be opened in June. The only serious obstacle to its opening on time, he said, had to do with bureaucratic problems in clearing some of the materials for the project through customs.

What was the old TB dispensary was being expanded into a 120-bed hospital and fitted at a cost of US$55,000.   High technology equipment was already in the province. The patients from the old  dispensary had been temporarily moved to the Ngola Kimbanda provincial hospital.

Meanwhile, he said, the local office of the Ministry of Health had been seeking new technical and administrative staff.

Funds for social projects

The Social Support Fund, Fas, allocated US$22 million for 560 community development projects in eleven of the country’s eighteen provinces. 

This was revealed by Frederico Sanumbutue, assistant director of Fas in Namibe Province, after a meeting of provincial directors of Fas held in Namibe from 9 to 11 May. He said that 287 of the projects had already been completed, 293 were still being carried out, and there were another 545 to be executed in 2006.

The meeting had discussed operational and administrative issues, community development and the drafting of a programme of work for the second half of this year. The work done so far, they concluded, had met government expectations, since it had increased public access to essential facilities.

This was one of the factors that had led the government to ask the World Bank, the European Union and other donors for more financial support to continue the programme.

Animal vaccination

António José Lenine, head of the Department of Veterinary Services in Huambo Province, said that more than 7,000 domesticated animals, including goats, cattle and pigs, had been vaccinated during the current campaign in the province.  He said the campaign was being carried out throughout the region, so as to wipe out diseases, decrease animal mortality rates and improve the diet of the population.

He said the vaccinations were being carried out door to door by four brigades made up of students from the Faculty of Agricultural Science, the Vocational Agricultural School and the Institute of Veterinary Research.

Last year, António José Lenine said, only 2,237 animals had been vaccinated, so there had been a substantial increase.  He spoke of difficulties caused by the shortage of transport for the brigades and the delay in sending the vaccines from Luanda.

The department also vaccinated 4,957 dogs and cats against rabies.  Beta Tereza, a department official, said large numbers of people had brought their pets to be vaccinated.

It was meanwhile announced in Huíla Province that 11,000 head of cattle had been vaccinated in the municipality of Cacula. António Firmino, one of the activists in the four vaccination brigades set up in the municipality, said that, unlike what used to happen, traditional herders no longer showed any hesitation in taking their cattle and goats to be vaccinated.

The large numbers of breeders, herders and animals that came, he said, was a result of the big awareness and mobilisation campaign carried out before vaccination started.  Now, when any animal showed signs of disease, the breeders isolated it and immediately contacted the veterinary authorities.

He said Huíla Province had spent US$200,000 on acquiring vaccines and other requirements.

The southern provinces of Huíla and Cunene have approximately 2.5 million head of cattle.

Maria dos Anjos, provincial director of the Ministry of Agriculture in Namibe Province, said they planned to vaccinate 100,000 head of cattle during the first phase of the campaign started on 13 May. She said they had 150,000 doses of vaccine and the work would be done in the whole province by seven brigades with 47 veterinary technicians.

Namibe Province has 500,000 head of cattle and one million goats and sheep.

EU funds for bridge repairs

The European Union has provided more than US$7 million for the repair of twenty metal bridges on the Lucusse-Lumbala Nguimbo and Lucusse-Lumbala Kaquenge roads in Moxico Province.  The bridges, most of which are more than 45 metres long, will improve links between Luena, the provincial capital, and the municipalities of Bundas and Alto Zambeze, where most of the returnees from Zambia are concentrated.

Coordinated by the World Food Programme, others working on the project are the provincial office of the National Highway Institute, the NGO Norwegian People’s Aid and the engineering company of the third region military command.

João Ernesto dos Santos ‘Liberdade’, governor of Moxico Province, visited the work sites on 8 May and expressed satisfaction at progress made with mine clearance around the old bridges over the Lunguembungo and Mulondola rivers.   Sappers from the British NGO Mines Advisory Service assured him that demining in the areas would be completed by 20 May.

Demining machine assembled in Malanje

A Scottish-made demining machine called the Aardvark was assembled in the city of Malanje by Angolan technicians working with the Norwegian People’s Aid NGO.

This was revealed on 8 May by Lemuardo Coutinho Neto, provincial director of the NGO, who said he was pleased by the technical ability of the technicians, though the work had taken twelve months because of the lack of parts that had to be imported.

He said that buying an Aardvark abroad cost US$600,000, but when it was assembled locally it cost only US$50,000.  

Lemuardo Coutinho Neto said that between January and April this year the special mine clearance brigade removed twenty anti-personnel mines, six anti-tank mines and six unexploded devices in agricultural areas in Kinguila, the commune of Cambaxi, the Lau geotechnical station and some of the outlying areas of Malanje. However, he added, although some roads and bridges had already been demined, there were still a lot of mines and unexploded ordnance in the province.

Norwegian People’s Aid has been working in Malanje since 1995, and now has 150 specialists, including sappers, supervisors and awareness activists.

It was meanwhile reported that the government and the United Nations Development Programme had signed two agreements on mine clearance. One, for €2 million, was to increase the capacity of the National Inter-sector Demining and Humanitarian Assistance Commission, CNIDAH, as the national body responsible for the management of all demining operations in the country.

The other, also for €2 million, was to provide funds for different demining groups to enable them to meet immediate needs and carry out emergency operations and other unforeseen work, to meet the needs of vulnerable communities. The agreements came within the framework of an agreement signed with the European Commission, which provided the funds.

OMA advice centres solve family conflicts

The advice centres of the Organisation of Angolan Women, OMA, in Luanda dealt with 19,770 family conflict cases between 2000 and 2004, 4,255 of which were solved.

These figures were revealed on 5 May by Solange Machado, coordinator of the advice centres, during a national conference on access to justice.  She said the centres were ‘a great help to the courts’.

Their activities included giving legal advice to women, giving talks in markets and educational establishments and solving family conflicts.

The centres, which were scattered throughout Luanda Province, had two senior lawyers, four who had just finished their courses, students from the Law Faculty and advisers. Most family conflicts were settled at the centres, she said, but more complex cases were referred to courts.

The conference was attended by magistrates, lawyers and representatives of political parties and civil society.

Lusophone Ministers of Culture meet in Luanda

The Ministers of Culture of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, CPLP, met in Luanda on 13 and 14 May.  Previous meetings were held in Estoril (Portugal), Rio de Janeiro and Maputo.

This one was preceded by the fourth meeting of the Ministers of Culture of African countries with Portuguese as their official language. They approved a general programme that included the setting up of a training school for courses in cultural and natural heritage management. Among the recommendations were the signing of agreements on the mutual protection of copyright, and the holding of cultural and film festivals.

The Ministers also discussed cooperation on policies on culture, cultural heritage, national languages, cinema and audio-visual media, as well as a common historical archive on the liberation struggle of the five countries.

The CPLP meeting decided to make 5 May CPLP Day of Culture, to mark the date of their first meeting in Portugal in 2000. They stressed the importance of an agreement on the cinema and audio-visual media and decided to hold a meeting of officials from this sector in October. They also approved a declaration on negotiations with Unesco and on the protection of diversity of cultural content and artistic expression which, it said, should guarantee the sovereign right of states to formulate and pursue cultural policies, particularly those geared to protecting and promoting cultural diversity, while respecting traditional communities, notably with regard to traditional knowledge and cultural expressions.

In addition to Ministers and specialists from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé, the meeting was attended by Luís António, executive director of the CPLP, and Marc Sery-Koré, deputy director of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s economic development bureau for Africa.

The Ministers of Culture of Angola and Brazil signed a bilateral agreement in the area of cinema, audio-visual media, heritage and personnel training. It also provided for strengthened cooperation on books and records. The Brazilian Minister, Gilberto Gil, said this made it possible to publish Angolan authors in Brazil and Brazilian ones in Angola.   Projects involving books and records could start this year, he said.

Boaventura Cardoso, Angola’s Minister of Culture, stressed the importance of the fact that the agreement provided for training in the most varied areas of culture.

Angolan film shown in Russia

An Angolan film, Na cidade vazia (in the empty city) by filmmaker Maria João Ganga, was shown in the Moscow Cinema House on 19 May. The filmmaker spoke about the film during a discussion about film production in Angola and cooperation with Russia in this area.  The film was also shown at the National University of Culture and Arts on the outskirts of Moscow and at a screening for African diplomats.

Na cidade vazia, whose executive producer was François Gonot, is a feature film made in Luanda about the difficult situation of street children, in which the main actors are Ndala and Ngunga, aged 11 and 14. It was first shown in Luanda in July 2004. 

Co-financed by the European Union, it has already won prizes at international film festivals. It won Maria João Ganga the national culture and arts award for cinema. It was awarded third prize at the African Film Festival in Milan and the special City of Milan award for the feature film receiving the most public votes. Other awards were won at the International Women’s Film Festival in France and the Paris Festival.

The Dundo museum is being restored

The Dundo regional museum in Lunda Norte Province, which has been closed to the public since the nineties, owing to its deterioration, has been undergoing restoration work since April. José Maria, a museum official, said the work was being done by a Chinese construction company, sponsored by the Horizonte Foundation, an institution set up by Endiama, the state diamond company.

He said the project had made it possible to provide jobs for more than a hundred people, eighty of them former Endiama workers who had been laid off because they were no longer needed. 

Created by Diamang, the former diamond company, more than sixty years ago, the museum has more than 10,200 ethnographic artefacts, as well as natural history and archaeological objects. The first part of the restoration work involves securing it against illegal entry, owing to the many thefts over the past few years.