President José Eduardo dos Santos said in Luanda on 27 January that the next elections would be ‘credible and fully participative’ if voter registration covered all Angolans who were entitled to vote and be elected, without any exception.        

Speaking at the opening of an MPLA central committee meeting, he said ‘we all want transparent and well organised elections’.   

He added that the MPLA should give the government every support in creating the conditions for starting and completing voter registration as soon as possible. 

It should also encourage the government to complete the rehabilitation of the basic network of highways and railways, so as to ensure massive participation in the elections. 

‘The opening up of those communication lines,’ he said, ‘will give great impetus to the economic and social development of Angola as well as Central and Southern Africa, and will transform the country into a powerful economic partner in this region.’

The MPLA president went on to say that there had been rapid and profound economic, social and constitutional changes in the country in the post-war period, after 2002. 

Yet citizens and their families wanted urgent solutions to the unsolved problems accumulated during the years of war, like unemployment, the need for housing and safe water, access to medical care, education and justice, among other things, he said, and he stressed the role that party leaders at all levels should play in dedicating themselves to the resolution of these problems.

Benguela and Moçâmedes railways to be rehabilitated by 2007

The Benguela Railway, CFB, which runs from the Atlantic coast to Angola’s eastern border, will be fully rehabilitated by August 2007.  This was announced in Benguela on 6 January during the ceremony awarding the tender for the project to China International Fund Limited.   The work, to be completed in 20 months, also includes repairing and refurbishing all the stations along the line.

The Angolan authorities estimate that about 50 trains a day will travel on the line, making it possible to carry four million passengers and 20 million tonnes of goods a year.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Transport André Luís Brandão said:  ‘This is a great contribution Angola is making to the development of Africa.   We are taking an important step by re-opening the shortest route to the sea for countries like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.’

Daniel Quipaxi, director general of the Benguela Railway said on 18 December that about 700 km of the line, from the coastal city of Lobito, Benguela Province, to Bié Province in the central highlands, had already been cleared of mines by specialised teams.  Speaking in Lobito to Tomaz Augusto Salomão, executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community, who was on a visit to Angola, he said conditions had already been created to start to rehabilitate the CFB, since demining was no longer a problem on that stretch.

Daniel Quipaxi went on to say that despite the work being done by the Angolan government, SADC countries should also help to complete the rehabilitation of the CFB, and he asked Tomaz Augusto Salomão to facilitate the exchange of information within the association of railways in the region.

The SADC executive secretary said the rehabilitation of the Lobito corridor was a major concern of landlocked countries in the region, since it could help to boost their economies.

The rehabilitation of the CFB is expected to cost approximately US$330.5 million, to be covered by the Chinese loan. 

The rehabilitation of the Moçâmedes Railway, CFM, at a cost of US$1.2 billion, is also scheduled to be completed in August 2007. The line goes from Namibe (formerly Moçâmedes) on the Atlantic coast in southwest Angola, through Lubango and Matala in Huíla Province, to Menongue, capital of Kuando Kubango in the southeast of the country.  When completed, 30 trains will be able to travel both ways on it every day, carrying two million passengers and 15 million tonnes of goods a year.

Zu Lizhao, a representative of the China International Fund Limited company entrusted with the work, said that 73 stations, bridges, drainage channels and tunnels would be built, and that all the rails and sleepers would be replaced. 

João Baptista Kussumua, coordinator of the National Demining Commission, guaranteed that the mines that still existed on some stretches of the line would not impede the work, since mine clearance would be coordinated with the progress of reconstruction.

They were speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate the reconstruction during which the foundation stone was laid by André Luís Brandão, Minister of Transport, General Hélder Vieira Dias ‘Kopelipa’, director of the National Reconstruction Office, and João Baptista Kussumua.  Among those also present were José Ferreira, Deputy Minister of Public Works, Ramos da Cruz, governor of Namibe Province, Dom Zacarias Kamuenho, the local bishop, traditional authorities and representatives of China International Fund Limited.

Júlio Bango Joaquim, director of the CFM, said the line currently ran only half of its 800 km course, from Namibe to Matala.  It employed 2,000 workers. 

The first phase of reconstruction was carried out by an Indian firm, which supplied the locomotives, rehabilitated the workshops and trained personnel, at a cost of US$40 million.

Seminar on human rights questionnaire

João Bernardo de Miranda, Minister of External Relations, said in Luanda on 14 December that the government took a very serious and responsible view of human rights issues.

He was speaking at the opening of a seminar on the presentation of a national questionnaire on human rights.

He said the government had done all it could to ensure ‘that its action and conduct are guided by strict respect for the legal norms that govern democracy’.

He added that Angola consistently and rigorously applied all the international legal instruments related to human rights, especially the major agreements and conventions.

The presentation of Angola’s report on human rights, the Minister said, did not depend only on the inter-ministerial human rights commission, but should reflect the involvement of the whole of society in the process, so as to safeguard the rights of all citizens.

He went on to warn that the essence of human rights should not be distorted, and nor should they be ‘propagated like the new evangelism of an unjust new world economic order’, the major promoters and defenders of which acted like messiahs.   The high levels of production and great wealth of many countries, he said, did not reflect compliance with human rights.

The two-day seminar was organised by the Ministry of External Relations and the United Nations office on human rights.  It discussed the form of the questionnaire and themes related to international conventions on civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights of the child and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

The seminar was attended by representatives of the UN, the ministries of External Relations, Interior, Justice, Education, Health, the Family and the Advancement of Women, the National Children’s Institute, NGOs, other public institutions and civil society.

The Council of Ministers recently approved a protocol on cooperation between Angola and South Africa in the area of defence, as part of the general agreement on cooperation and the establishment of a bilateral commission.

Specific areas agreed were defence policy, education and instruction, military intelligence, the exchange of information on the organisational structure of the ministries of defence and armed forces of the two countries, missions in support of the establishment of peace, and search and rescue operations. 

Further areas covered included, among other things, health, military medical care, military legislation, disarmament and arms control and civilian-military relations.

The two parties agreed not to permit the use of the territory of either country by rebel or foreign forces for purposes of aggression against or destabilisation of the other’s country or government.

The high cost of replacing destroyed facilities

Angola has produced 1.4 million barrels a day since last August, when the Kizomba B project in Block 15 came on stream with an output of more than 200,000 barrels a day.  A total of 22 wells were drilled in 2005, resulting in five commercial strikes, four of them in Block 31.

Oil Minister Desidério da Costa, who gave this information during a meeting to extend new year greetings to the directors of oil companies, said that other projects had advanced from the development phase to that of production. He went on to say that important steps had been taken in the liquefied natural gas project, which had now reached the second development phase, that of detailed engineering.

The Minister stressed that, owing to the growth and increased capacity of Sonangol Research and Production, operations in Block 3/80 had been transferred to that national company.

The Minister said that Angola had been elected to chair the African Petroleum Producers Association, APPA, and would be organising a meeting of its council of ministers in March. 

Oil production continues to be the major driving force in Angola’s economy.  According to available data, the country is expected to produce 1.8 million barrels a day in 2007, 2.1 million in 2008 and about 2.5 million in 2010.

In its 2006 budget, the government forecasts a total output of 597 million barrels, which represents a 37.2 percent increase, at an average price of US$45 a barrel.

According to official figures, oil output remained high in 2005, representing 90 percent of exports, 50 percent of GDP and 80 percent of tax revenue.  One of the results of this, added to the rise in the price of crude oil on the international market, was that for the first time in thirty years there is no budget deficit and the 2006 budget is fully financed. 

Unleaded petrol replaced the traditional type in 2005, in accordance with a SADC recommendation, a government measure that will prolong the life of vehicles and substantially reduce polluting gas emissions.

Speaking at a meeting of the Oil Ministry’s Consultative Board held in Ondjiva, Cunene Province, in late January, Manuela Coelho, director of the Ministry’s human resources department, said foreign oil companies operating in the country employed more than 20,000 Angolans. Worker and medium level posts were 100 percent filled by Angolans, but the big handicap was at the top and managerial level.

Because foreign oil companies said there were no Angolans with the abilities required for such posts, she proposed a new training model aimed at achieving full Angolanisation and supported by the engineering and geosciences departments of Agostinho Neto University.

The meeting also discussed the disparity in the oil industry between the salaries of national and expatriate senior technicians.  Salaries for senior technicians range from US$2,800 to US$3,900.  Expatriates receive a basic salary, an expatriation allowance and insurance, as well as benefits and technical assistance costs, while Angolans receive only their basic salaries and benefits.

In order to reduce this imbalance, the Oil Ministry is working on a new wage policy, following visits made to France, Brazil and Gabon. 

In addition to Angolanisation, Sonangol, the national oil company, has been implementing a national participation in the oil industry project aimed at involving Angolan companies in the supply of goods and services to the oil industry.  The companies have up to now been importing all their requirements.   Under the law, companies must acquire all the goods they need – consumables, food, equipment, machinery and other means of production - for their activities in Angola. However, local companies have not been technically or financially able to meet the logistical needs of the industry.

The national project started to be implemented in 2002, with the aim of increasing national revenue, ensuring the transfer of technology and reducing dependence on foreign countries.    Thirty companies are already involved in the project, 15 of which will be invited to compete for tender bids to be put out by the companies this year. The project includes training for the companies provided by the Company Support Centre opened in Luanda last September.

Increased agricultural yields

Agricultural production achieved satisfactory results in 2005, especially in respect of maize, which means that Angola will be able to stop importing maize this year.  The contribution of agriculture to GDP increased from eight percent in 2004 to 12 percent in 2005.   Maize production rose from 600,000 to 800,000 tonnes and there was a surplus of cassava meal.   However, there is still a shortfall of 625,000 tonnes (41 percent) in grain production, as against 819,900 tonnes (46.57 percent) in 2004.

David Tunga, director general of the food security office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minader, has said that, in addition to fighting poverty, hunger and unemployment, ensuring food security and self-sufficiency is one of the Ministry’s main priorities.   

used to produce in the past. He added that one of the major achievements of the Ministry was the launching of the rural development and extension programme, PEDR, in October 2005, specifically for peasants and rural areas.

Speaking on 10 January at the official start of the 2005-2006 agricultural year in Cunene Province, which borders on Namibia, Porfirio Simenehulo, provincial director of agriculture, said the peasants were being given equipment, fertilisers and seeds to enable them to achieve good harvests.  Together with hundreds of tons of seeds of different kinds, the peasants were given 7,000 hoes, 5,000 axes, 1,000 ploughs and 20 tractors.

Hermenegildo Keane, national director of agricultural hydraulics and rural engineering, said on 8 January that since September last year Minader has been rehabilitating four irrigation systems in order to increase cultivated areas.

These were irrigation channels in the municipalities of Luena (Moxico Province) and Matumbo (Kwanza Sul) and the dam and channel on the agricultural land around Gandjelas and the Caxito valley (both in Bengo Province). The projects will take 18 months and will be financed by the Chinese credit line.

He went on to say that, as part of the public investment programme, Minader was having the irrigation channel in the municipality of Missombo (Kuando Kubango) rehabilitated.  The work is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

Meanwhile, a report by the Minader studies, planning and statistics office stated that the government was rehabilitating more irrigation systems and adding another 52,000 hectares of irrigated land, using new systems of channels, dams and sprinkler systems.  There are 37 agricultural hydraulics and rural engineering rehabilitation projects in progress, 33 of them public and the remainder carried out through private investment.

 Mecanagro to spend US$30 million on roads

The national agricultural mechanisation company, Mecanagro, is to spend US$30 million in 2006 on eight special rural engineering brigades to rehabilitate more than 800 kilometres of tertiary roads in all parts of the country.

Speaking to the press in Benguela in early December during a meeting of the board of directors, Carlos Alberto Jaime Pinto, chairman of Mecanagro, said the work would be financed by the loan from the Chinese Exim Bank, making it possible to buy equipment from China.

The meeting discussed Mecanagro’s financial situation and preparing land for the 2005-2006 agricultural year.  It recommended that land preparation should be completed by May, especially in the provinces in which the Agricultural Development Institute was to carry out rural extension programmes, particularly Malanje, Kwanza Sul, Benguela, Huíla, Bié and Huambo.

The participants noted the need to provide the mechanisation and technical assistance departments with more vehicles and to implement a personnel training programme for machine operators, mechanics, electricians and brigade chiefs, in view of the new equipment they would be receiving.

They also concluded that priority should be given to the provinces of Bengo, Kwanza Norte, Malanje, Bié, Huambo, Kwanza Sul, Moxico, Zaire, Uíje, Huíla and Benguela in the programme to rehabilitate facilities destroyed in the war.

Cotton growing to be relaunched in Kwanza Sul

There are plans to relaunch cotton production in Kwanza Sul Province this year, through a three-year programme on about 2,000 hectares of land in the municipalities of Sumbe and Porto Amboim, costing US$31 million.  Domingos Afonso Mário Huambo, the provincial director of agriculture, said the area chosen would be irrigated by the water harnessing station at Kassongo. 

He went on to say that a rural extension programme was in progress in the province and that there had been greatly increased agricultural activity as a result of the climate of peace.

An agreement on a cotton growing modernisation project in Kwanza Sul Province was signed with South Korea in Luanda in early December. 

Under the agreement, South Korea will grant Angola a US$31 million loan reimbursable in 30 years, with a ten year period of grace, to be used to build an irrigation and drainage system for 5,000 hectares of cotton. 

The project includes hydrographical, geological and meteorological surveys, soil analysis, electrification, building work and market analysis, as well as the distribution of plots of land.

Angolan and Vietnamese military delegations signed an agreement in Luanda on 16 December on the development of rice production.

The agreement followed talks between delegations headed by General Inocêncio de Almeida, national director of material resources in the Ministry of Defence, and Major General Tran Banh, head of logistics and health in the Vietnamese army, on the development of agriculture and livestock production by the Angolan Armed Forces, FAA, to ensure food self-sufficiency.

They also discussed Vietnamese help with projects for encouraging the use of traditional medicines in the armed forces.

Major general Tran Banh said after the meeting that Angola had the agricultural potential to maintain food reserves and avoid recourse to imports. 

During their two-week visit, the eight members of the Vietnamese delegation visited the provinces of Huíla, Bengo and Lunda Sul and a number of agricultural and livestock farms, as well as some FAA units, the Military Hospital in Luanda and the army general staff and air force clinics. 

The Huambo local government has rehabilitated and equipped a plant to produce soya milk and derivatives. Located on the outskirts of the city of Huambo, the work was completed in a year and financed through the public investment programme. The equipment and assembly team came from Brazil.

Inaugurated on 10 December by provincial governor Paulo Kassoma, it can produce 2,500 litres of soya milk a day and employs thirty workers - women, demobilised soldiers and young people.

Luís Sampaio, director of the plant, said the aims were to encourage soya bean growing, to combat unemployment and to improve the diet of the population.

Paulo Kassoma said the plant would help to solve problems of school meals and food for hospital patients.

He said the amount of soya produced in the province was still insufficient, but there was enough for the plant to function for at least six months, and that provided local farmers and private investors supported the soya production programme started in 2003, the plant ‘will never stop’.

An area of 478,318 square metres of land in Bié Province was cleared of 1,907 explosive devices between January and November 2005. This was revealed in Kuito in early December by António Gomes da Conceição Gonçalves, local coordinator of the inter-sector demining and humanitarian assistance commission, CNIDAH, who was reviewing the activity of the past year.

Adding that this included 1,290 anti-personnel mines, 16 anti-tank mines and assorted unexploded ordnance, he described the work done by de-mining bodies in the region as positive.

He said the National Demining Institute had also carried out mine clearance activities at the local Joaquim Kapango airport, in resettlement areas and agricultural fields. CNIDAH, he continued, held 234 mine awareness meetings during the same period, attended by 40,296 people.

António Gomes da Conceição Gonçalves said there had been 22 accidents with unexploded ordnance during the year, resulting in eight dead and 31 injured.  He said they had also located another 284 suspected minefields in the province and asked demining NGOs to clear them, while also appealing to municipal administrations to cooperate actively by reporting suspected minefields, so that the deadly devices could be removed.

Meanwhile, Mário Salomão, CNIDAH director in Moxico Province, said sappers from the National Demining Institute working on the Luau-Luena stretch of the Benguela Railway would reach Luena, the provincial capital, in the first six months of this year and then direct their efforts to the Munhango area, on the border with Bié Province.

Since the work had started in August 2005, he said, 109 anti-personnel mines and 13 anti-tank mines had already been deactivated on an approximately 281-km stretch of the line.  Apart from mine clearance, he added, one of the Moxico government’s priorities this year was to replace the temporary bridges on the line.

This work, he said, would be done by the British Mines Advisory Group, Norwegian People’s Aid, the World Food Programme, the engineering company of the third military region command and Danish Christian Action.

It was reported in Menongue, Kuando Kubango Province, on 23 January that the British NGO the Halo Trust had demined 409 km of roads in the province in 2005.   José António, the Halo Trust base chief, said they had also demined 112,945 square metres of land in the municipal seat of Mavinga, the villages of Chimpopo, Cambimbia and Dumbo and the area around the provincial radio station in Menongue, the provincial capital.

They had detonated 2,002 anti-personnel mines, 155 anti-tank mines and 251 other explosive devices in the course of 2005, he said.

José António outlined plans for the current year, which included the 157-km road from Caiúndo to Cuangar on the Namibian border. He said they were using manual methods, electronic detectors and other equipment to help them in the work, especially the Multidrive machine. 

New social projects for Endiama workers

A primary school was opened by Lunda Norte provincial governor Gomes Maiato in Lucapa, about 165 km from Dondo, the provincial capital, on 12 January, to mark the 25^th anniversary of Endiama, the state diamond company. The first primary school in the Kaxinacage neighbourhood of Lucapa, it was sponsored by the Luarica Project at a cost of US$218,000, and includes four classrooms, an administrative area, bathrooms and a teachers’ room, and has piped water and a generator.

The Luarica Project is a joint association of Endiama and the South African diamond company Trans Hex.

The Luarica Project also gave four motorbikes and agricultural equipment to traditional authorities in Kaxinacage, including headman Tchachonga.

A new residential area and canteen for the more than 400 workers of Endiama was also inaugurated on that day.  The director general of the Luarica Project, Laureano Receado, said they would be seeking to extend the plan of assistance to the local population, to provide school meals and to promote a campaign in the community to fight HIV/Aids.

Asked about the development of the project, he said that they had initially lived in tents.   ‘I slept in a tent I put up, and in less then two years we have made Luarica an organised town with modern equipment,’ he said.   He went on to say that they were planning to start an agricultural project in which local people could be employed.

There is a new medical centre for the workers and their families, as well as the neighbouring population.  The previous centre was in a tent.  All medical care is free of charge. Built at a cost of US$110,000, it has nine beds, a laboratory and an ambulance.  The more serious cases are evacuated to hospitals in other parts of the country.  José Buta, head of the Luarica Project health department, said efforts would be made to improve the services provided at the centre by increasing the range of laboratory tests available, acquiring an x-ray machine and computerising the health system.

The more than 400 workers include 39 foreigners, seven South Africans and the remainder Filipinos involved in engineering.

Social reconstruction

Maria Augusta Peixoto, director of the Social Support Fund, Fas, in Bengo Province, said in mid-January that US$4.7 million had been spent on 39 completed social projects in the municipalities of Dande, Ambriz and Dembos in 2005.  These projects financed by Fas, she said, included 13 in the areas of water and sanitation, 11 in health, seven in education and eight related to production – markets and access roads.  She added that a total of 59 projects had been approved last year and that the remaining ones would be completed in the first six months of this year.

Three primary schools and a medical centre were inaugurated in Kuando Kubango Province on 4 January by provincial governor Baptista Tchindani.

Work to restore the municipal hospital in Cacuso, 72 km east of the city of Malanje, was completed in December 2005.  Simão Aires, the municipal administrator, said the work, which cost US$50,000, had been paid for by the provincial government and the Movitel mobile phone company. The hospital has maternity and paediatrics clinics, a pharmacy, an emergency department and four wards.

Simão Aires said health care was being provided by 28 nurses working in the three communes in the municipality.  This, however, was not enough and efforts were being made to get the government to send more health workers to the area this year.  

The first phase of a safe water supply system in Sanza Pombo, 155 km northeast of the city of Uíje, was inaugurated by provincial governor António Bengo Cangula on 5 January.  The new system, to provide water for more than 50,000 people, is being built in two phases.  The first, the governor said, involved pumping the water from the river into tanks and the second, to start the following week, was to treat the water to be supplied to the population.

He said work in progress to rehabilitate the electric power supply system in Sanza Pombo was expected to be completed in the next few months. This would be an important gain for people in the municipality thirteen years after the system had been destroyed in the war, he said.

The Social Support Fund spent US$3,397,580 on 71 social projects in Kwanza Sul Province in 2005.   Neto Sacongo, provincial director of Fas, told the Angop news agency on 4 January that they had met the targets set.  Among the projects, he said, were 15 schools, six health posts, two libraries, and four houses for nurses and three for teachers.

This year, Sacongo continued, emphasis would be given to strengthening the capacity of municipal and communal administrations and giving technical equipment and scientific knowledge to community leaders.

A new general hospital will be opened in the Kilamba Kiaxi neighbourhood of Luanda on 4 February.  Job Castelo Capapinha, governor of Luanda Province, who announced this at a press conference on 9 January to review last year’s activities and speak of plans for 2006, said the hospital was being built with Chinese funding.

Vita Vemba, the provincial director of health, said the hospital will initially have 100 beds and will be equipped for surgery, paediatrics, physiotherapy, neurology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, gynaecology and obstetrics.  He said one of the major priorities for 2006 was to extend health services to all communities and improve the care available.  New health units would be built and others would be rehabilitated and expanded, and there would also be a programme to provide equipment for health centres and posts. He spoke of refresher courses for health personnel and their redistribution, so as to make the best possible use of those available.

The provinces of Huambo and Huíla will have new hospital units inaugurated on 4 February. A mother-and-child care centre will open in Katchiungo and a health post in Londuimbali, both in Huambo Province, and a 60-bed municipal hospital in Alto Hama.     The government is also rehabilitating the Katchiungo missionary school and the hostel of the Catholic Teresian sisters in Katchiungo, as part of the programme of improving basic social services.

Meanwhile three new 60-bed hospitals will be built this year in Huíla Province, in the municipalities of Matala, Quilengues and Caconda, funded by the Chinese credit line.  Óscar Isalino, the provincial health director, said the programme was one of the priorities for 2006 and also included recruiting medical staff.

Increase in number of Aids cases

The Angolan health authorities registered 3,587 new cases of Aids in the country between January and October 2005, an increase of 37.2 percent over the same period last year. These figures were given by Dulcelina Serrano, director of the National Institute for Fighting Aids, who added that 19,196 cases had been diagnosed in Angola since 1985, when the first case appeared.

She said the whole country had been affected by the epidemic, but the highest rates were in the provinces of Cabinda, Cunene, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Uíje and Kuando Kubango, which bordered on countries where there was a high incidence of the disease. Luanda Province also had one of the highest rates, she said, owing to its ‘special characteristics’.

As regards treatment with anti-retrovirals, she said these medicines were currently available in only five provinces – Luanda, Cunene, Cabinda, Huíla and Uíje -  but that ‘the whole country will be covered by September’.

According to UNAIDS data, Aids was responsible for about 15 percent of orphans in Angola in 2001, a percentage that exceeded 20 percent at the end of 2005 and could attain 34 percent in 2010.

Malaria situation expected to improve

According to information given at a national conference on malaria held in Luanda in mid-December, the Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation, Unicef and oil companies operating in Angola plan to ensure anti-malaria treatment throughout the country in 2006.

Surveys made in 2004 showed that 21 percent of children and pregnant women had slept under mosquito nets treated with insecticide the previous night, and more than two million such nets had been distributed since 1999. The exemption of medicines from import duties had been an important factor in ensuring that there were sufficient anti-malarials to combat the disease.

Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso said at the opening of the conference that fighting malaria was one of the millennium development goals and part of the government’s strategic plan to combat endemic diseases. 

Fatoumata Diallo, the WHO representative in Angola, reaffirmed the WHO’s support for this work.  

Malaria is endemic everywhere in Angola, the highest risk provinces being Luanda, Namibe, Cunene and Kuando Kubango.  There were 38,450 notified deaths from malaria in 2003, but this figure fell to 11,866 in 2004, owing to the distribution of mosquito nets, sparse rainfall and population stability resulting from the end of the war.

According to a report issued in late December by the Bomba Alta Orthopaedic Centre, on the outskirts of the city of Huambo, 33,567 people physically handicapped people, most of them mine victims, were rehabilitated there between 1999 and November 2005.

They included men, women and children, many of them amputees, and were from Huambo and the provinces of Bié, Kuando Kubango, Malanje and Moxico. The centre produced 4,117 prosthetic limbs in the same period, as well as crutches and wheelchairs.

This was made possible, according to the report, by the financial support of the government and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Recent expenditure on the 60-bed centre has included the refurbishment of the clinical analysis laboratories, the acquisition of electrocardiogram and radiological equipment and the rehabilitation of the canteen and laundry.

The centre is currently being expanded, as part of the public investment programme, and the internet is being installed with funds from the Luanda national physical rehabilitation programme.

According to orthopaedic centre statistics, 33 percent of the known 170,000 physically handicapped people in the country are in central Angola – Huambo, Benguela and Kwanza Sul provinces.  The number of victims of explosive devices has increased in recent years, owing to greater population movement.

European Union support for reintegration of former soldiers

The UE, through the World Bank, has donated US$31.1 million to support the government’s general demobilisation and reintegration programme. ‘This programme is one of the major pillars of peace in Angola,’ Olivier Lambert, acting representative of the World Bank in Angola, said at the signing of the agreement on the donation.  ‘The fact that the European Union has decided to support it shows that it is on the right track.’

Glauco Calzuola, head of the European Commission office in Angola, stressed that the programme permitted the resettlement of people and that Brussels was ready to continue supporting the Angolan government in this area.

The EU donation will supplement the efforts of the Angolan government, supported by the World Bank, to carry out the demobilisation and reintegration programme, which also includes the widows of soldiers, children, teenage mothers and disabled ex-servicemen.

The government programme is to support 105,000 former Unita soldiers, as well as 33,000 former government troops, ensuring conditions for their reintegration in civilian life.

The World Bank has already contributed US$33 million to the programme, as well as making US$48 million from the trust fund available, while the government has allocated US$159 million to finance demobilisation and reintegration.

The most recent official figures indicate that 97,116 former Unita soldiers have been demobilised, and that 72 social and vocational reintegration projects have been approved for 59,243 former Unita troops.

Solar power to be taken to villages

More than 1,300 villages in seventeen of the country’s provinces are to benefit from a BP Angola solar electrification project, following an agreement signed with the government.  This was stated in Luanda on 15 December by Rui Tito, Deputy Minister of Energy and Water, during a seminar on renewable energy sources.

The programme, he said, would be carried out over a 15-year period in a decentralised manner, which was why ‘the participation and involvement of provincial governments, municipal administrations and other local authorities is essential’.

It would be an integral part of the national rural electrification plan and there was an urgent need to establish support structures and an electrification fund.  The success of the programme, he continued, depended on a number of issues like the ability of the administrative structure to implement it and the mustering of different funding sources. Rui Tito stressed the need for institutions operating in the energy sector to associate themselves with the programme, so as to contribute to the development of renewable power sources. 

He went on to say that the new system would guarantee immediate access to electric power, improve the quality of life of the people affected and ensure sustained electricity supplies.

The project is expected to cost US$220 million.  Because only 27 percent of the population has electric power, its implementation is regarded as urgent. 

64.9 percent of Luanda residents have mobile phones

According to a survey made by the Angolan Institute of Communications in August and September 2005, 64.9 percent of the population of Luanda have mobile phones and 30.5 percent have fixed telephones.

It was found that 62 percent of those with landlines were in the medium and upper economic brackets, while social position did not seem to affect the acquisition of a mobile phone, since 57 percent of the users contacted were unemployed.

The survey also covered the reasons why people had mobile phones and what they thought about the services of the two Angolan mobile phone providers, Unitel and Movicel.    

King of Baixa de Cassanje dies aged 107

King Kambamba Kulaxingo of Baixa Cassanje died in a Luanda clinic on 15 January at the age of 107.

One of his sons told the national radio that following the death of his father the question of the succession to the throne would be discussed at a family gathering.

Kambamba Kulaxingo spent his last years in Luanda, where he had sought refuge during the war but, after the war ended, had often stated his intention of returning to Malanje.

Cristovão da Cunha, governor of Malanje Province, said that he would be greatly missed, not only in the region but in the country, which had just lost a great ‘library’ of knowledge.