Voter registration could start in June or July

Speaking on National Radio of Angola on 19 April, Caetano de Sousa, president of the National Electoral Commission, CNE, said that voter registration for the next elections could start in June or July.

‘Voter registration will start on the date announced by the government, but it will be around then,’ he said.

The CNE approved the voter registration programme put forward by the government on 11 April, but the final document still had to be ratified by the Council of Ministers before the start of registration, a process scheduled to take six months, according to the programme.

Caetano de Sousa played down the importance of dates, saying that ‘the main thing is that steady progress is being made’. 

He said the process would start as soon as the government announced a date and end only with the election results.

He went on to say that relations between the CNE and the inter-ministerial commission for the electoral process, Cipe, were good and that there was constant contact between them. 

With regard to finances, he said that the CNE had been able to start working on the basis of the funds allocated to it.

Caetano de Sousa said the CNE had replied to all the questions addressed to it, so as to keep the public informed of the work done so far for the elections.

Voter registration will be carried out by about 14,000 people working in fixed and mobile brigades, to make it possible to register all nationals who are entitled to vote.

Portuguese Prime Minister visits Angola

President José Eduardo dos Santos had a private meeting with Portugal’s Prime Minister, José Socrates, following his arrival in Angola on 5 April for a three-day official visit. 

An agreement signed during the visit was for a loan of US$ 100 million with easy interest terms and a Portuguese state guarantee for the banks involved.  The money is to be spent on projects approved by both countries.   Angola is to finance at least ten percent of each project and the work is to be done by Portuguese companies.

An agreement on scientific and technical cooperation is aimed at coordinating existing cooperation between the two countries and, ultimately, at taking action within the framework of cooperation within the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, CPLP.

The two countries also signed an agreement on tourism under which they undertook to strengthen cooperation between institutions and companies, with a view to increasing the flow of tourists between them and exchanging information and experience. 

Speaking at an Angola-Portugal economic forum during the visit of Prime Minister José Socrates, Aguinaldo Jaime, assistant Minister in the office of the Prime Minister, said that steps taken by the government to rationalise public expenditure and increase fiscal efficiency had made it possible to reduce the budget deficit to a level in keeping with development goals.

He said economic stability was being maintained and inflation had fallen to the desired level.  This trend, which was a source of encouragement for the government team, he said, was developing in a very promising manner. ‘A high level International Monetary Fund mission has already confirmed that the indicators show that our economic reform process is on the right track,’ he added.

Aguinaldo Jaime said the government had boosted the granting of loans to businesses, so as to further national reconstruction and the rehabilitation of social facilities.

He called on Portuguese business people not to let slip the opportunity to participate in Angola’s development.

‘Economic take-off by 2008’

Minister of Finance José Pedro de Morais said in Luanda on 13 April that, as from 2008, Angola’s economy will enter a phase of consolidation and, through investments made so far, make good use of natural resources and develop the food, housing, transport and logistical sectors. 

Speaking at the closing session of a meeting of Portuguese-speaking economists, he said these benefits would stem from the improvements in the macro-economic situation in the country in the past two years resulting from the government’s active social, environmental and economic policies.

‘With exceptional oil and gas resources,’ he continued, ‘Angola will adopt dynamic growth policies that, through a high rate of capital accumulation and expansion of production, will break the vicious circle of poverty.’

The Minister stressed that Angola had other important natural resources, like its vast expanses of arable land, its large reserves of solid minerals, enormous hydroelectric potential and huge nature reserves and tourist parks.

He went on to say that all these alternatives for achieving sustainable growth and competitive involvement in world trade would be made full use of before oil production started to decline. The meeting was attended by 275 economists from the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries.

International mining fair

Angola’s mineral potential was displayed at the first International Mining Fair of Angola, Fima, held in Luanda from 27 to 30 April. It was organised by Expo-Angola, which specialises in fairs, and Endiama, the state diamond company, with the support of the Ministry of Geology and Mines. 

It included exhibits by 120 companies. Apart from foreign companies already operating in Angola, others came from Brazil, Canada, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Portugal and South Africa.

Mankenda Ambroise, Deputy Minister of Mines and Geology, who opened the fair, described it as an opportunity to exchange experiences, exhibit goods and equipment and discuss partnerships.

The volume of trade, at the end of the fair, was more than US$30 million, greatly exceeding the expectations of the organisers. 

Angola is considered especially rich in mineral resources.   Its subsoil is believed to contain 35 of the 45 minerals most sought after in international trade, including oil, natural gas, diamonds, phosphates, iron, manganese, gold, silver and ornamental stones, among others.

Surveys have shown that there are an estimated 150 million tonnes of phosphate reserves in the northern provinces of Cabinda and Zaire that are not currently being exploited.   Angola is the sixth biggest diamond producer in the world. In the provinces of Namibe and Huíla, in southwest Angola, there are large reserves of marble, granite and quartz, the production of which could be substantially increased.

Iron production, which used to amount to nearly six million tonnes a year before independence, ceased after 1975, but could soon be revived since the government announced its intention to rehabilitate existing mines in the south of the country. Semi-precious stones, basic metals and industrial minerals are also to be found.

Copper mining to start soon

Manuel Africano, Minister of Geology and Mines, revealed in Sumbe, Kwanza Sul Province, on 13 April that cooper mining would soon start in Cachoeiras da Binga.  He said that first a camp would be installed and the machinery would be installed in June.

The copper would be mined by a British firm, Silverpritex, in partnership with an Angolan company, he said, and the British firm had already spent more than US$5 million on prospecting and research. ‘There are immense resources in the subsoil of the province that need to be extracted to ensure the development of the region,’ the Minister said.

Kwanza Sul Province is rich in mica, gypsum, gold, quartz, iron, thermal waters and diamonds.

Equipment for southern railway has arrived

The first batch of equipment for the rehabilitation of the Moçâmedes Railway, CFM, has already arrived in Angola, according Ramos da Cruz, governor of Huíla Province. 

He said the current shipment included 200 pieces of heavy machinery sent from China and that other ships loaded with equipment were on their way to Angola.

Ramos da Cruz spoke of the impact the rehabilitated line would have on the southern provinces of Namibe, Huíla and Kuando Kubango, crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to southeast Angola.  (The coastal city of Namibe used to be called Moçâmedes.)

The rehabilitation and modernisation of the CFM will cost US$1.2 billion dollars. In addition to replacing 856 kilometres of line, 73 new stations will be built and new locomotives acquired. The work is scheduled to take 16 months, after which CFM trains are expected to carry two million passengers and 15 million tonnes of goods a year.  

Oil no longer used for loan payments

Minister of Finance José Pedro de Morais said in Luanda on 13 April that the country had stopped using oil to pay for loans.

Giving a talk on the public debt at a conference of the Audit Court, he said: ‘In the past the government contracted loans for which oil was the actual means of payment, but owing to the increased credibility of Sonangol (the state oil company) and the country’s improved macro-economic indicators,  loans are now taking a different form.’

He said that oil was still used as collateral for loans, but loans were so structured as to involve an interest rate, a repayment period and repayment conditions. They were repayable with normal national revenue, and only in the event of non-payment would the collateral be used. 

There was no longer any link between creditors and Sonangol. Sonangol would only intervene at the specific request of the state, on the basis of its part of revenue from oil sales.

‘This is good,’ the Minister went on to say, ‘because the premium on the exchange rate is very low.’ He added that this had now become a normal international practice.

Pedro de Morais said the International Monetary Fund had expressed great interest in the structure of these loans with collateral and invited Angolans specialists to go to Washington to talk about them. 

Angola’s external debt, he said, was an estimated US$9.5 billion and very diversified. 

Part of it was to bilateral creditors in the Paris Club, which had its own negotiating rules. The government had been seeking to approach the Paris Club to see how the debt could be resolved.

‘In the past it was impossible to resolve that debt because the creditors insisted on a prior programme with the IMF, which is no longer the case,’ he said. 

The remainder of the debt, he continued, was partly to international banks.   The country had found ways of resolving this, and another part was debts with oil as collateral.  There were also some small creditors.

The Minister said that from the time when the country had started to increase its financial capacity it had been dealing more actively with all these components of the debt, some by bilateral means and others through bank negotiations. 

He acknowledged that non-economic factors that had also contributed to the current stability were the climate of peace since 4 April 2002 and high oil prices.

In addition to economic policies, efforts had been made to improve public expenditure and achieve greater discipline in respect of the issue of currency and foreign exchange policy.

‘I think it’s fair to say that we are better off than we were a few years ago,’ he said.

Macro-economic stability, he said, had brought clear improvements to people’s lives. He gave the example of the reduction of inflation from 116 percent in 2002.  Someone who had 100 kwanzas in January 2002, he explained, would find that this money had lost all its purchasing power by the end of the year and be worth nothing.  

Last year, he continued, when there was 18 percent inflation, the same citizen with 100 kwanzas in January would reach the end of the year with limited purchasing power, since it would be worth about 92 kwanzas.

‘The situation now is radically different,’ he said, adding that this was the case at all levels, with the opportunities the country now had to invest instead of consume and to make good use of savings.

Role of Audit Court in fighting corruption stressed

Addressing the closing session of the conference on the Audit Court, João Lourenço, second vice-president of the National Assembly, stressed the crucial role played by the court in constantly seeking efficient management of public finance and good governance and fighting corruption. The conference, he said, was of outstanding importance to the government in the efforts it had been making to ensure transparent management of public assets and combating corruption.

He added that in February this year the Council of Ministers had approved adherence to the United Nations and African Union conventions on corruption, and he appealed to everyone to fight against corruption. The conference, João Lourenço said, showed Angola’s commitment to transparency and good governance, and to putting public interests first.

Lowest inflation rate ever

The rate of inflation in Angola in 2006 will be 10 percent - the lowest in the country’s history – as against 15 percent last year.  

This was revealed on 7 April by Eduardo Leopoldo Severin de Morais, Deputy Minister of Finance, in an address on the economy and national reconstruction to a colloquium organised by the MPLA’s studies and analyses office.

‘This is a result of the positive evolution of the national economy, the normalising of economic activity and the investments made over the past four years of peace,’ he said,  ‘we are in a period of investment in the recovery of economic and social facilities.’

Since the achievement of peace, the Deputy Minister continued, the government’s strategies had included demobilisation, resettlement, social reintegration and the restoration of economic and social facilities and agriculture, the effects of which were already visible.

Peace and good economic performance, he continued, had permitted access to foreign loans, something that was difficult in war situations, leading to private investments by September 2005 of about US$2.4 billion approved by the private investment agency. Confidence in the economy had also made it possible to secure loans amounting to an estimated US$5.552 billion.

Roads in Ndalatando to be repaired

Ladislau Machado, director of public works in Kwanza Norte Province, told the press on 3 April that US$3.5 million will be spent on the rehabilitation of the 20km of roads in Ndalatando, the provincial capital.  The work is to be done by an Angolan company, Kissari. He said the roads would be covered with a layer of asphalt and a concrete cover, including roads which had never been asphalted before.

He said the choice of Kissari to do the work was the result of a public tender to which other contractors had responded.  The contract, he said, included the building of three semi-detached houses in the village of Kirima, about 14 km from Ndalatando, where there was a quarry the contractor planned to use.

Moxico on the way to food self-sufficiency

The development of local agricultural production over the past few years has resulted in a very stable food situation in Moxico Province, which borders on Zambia in eastern Angola.

Speaking in Luena, the provincial capital, on 2 April, António da Silva, provincial director of agriculture, said the market was now better supplied, which helped to reduce hunger and poverty. 

He went on to say that the current strategy of promoting crops that constituted the staple diet of the population was being sustained by providing agricultural inputs, with the cooperation of NGOs and other partners involved in the agricultural sector. Through this work, he said, which involved 130,000 peasant families, the province was on the way to food self-sufficiency, based mainly on cassava, the principle staple crop.

António da Silva thought there would be good harvests this year, because the crops had been well watered since the start of the rainy season. There had also been an extension and rural development programme, PEDR, in the municipalities of Léua, Kamangongue and Moxico, he said.

Under ongoing programmes, he added, agricultural inputs had been distributed to 11,800 families in all municipalities in the province.  Equipment acquired by central government through the Chinese credit line included generators, mills and electric pumps to enable beneficiaries to process their crops.

WFP reduces assistance in Bié Province

The World Food Programme has reduced humanitarian assistance to the population of Bié Province because of the scant funds provided by the main donors this year. However, António Reais, head of the WFP base in the region, said less assistance was now needed as a result of political stability and increased economic development over the past four years.

He said the WFP was currently assisting 116,290 people in the province, mainly distributing food to returnees, providing school meals, continuing a nutrition programme and supporting a number of leprosy and TB patients.

Previously, before peace was achieved, he said, the WFP had assisted more than 500,000 people in the region.

Government support for house rebuilding in Bié

The local government in the central highland province of Bié is going to support the rebuilding of homes destroyed during the war, particularly in the provincial capital, Kuito. José Amaro Taty, governor of Bié Province, told the Angop news agency that the first phase of the programme would involve the provision of building materials to the owners of houses.  The houses selected initially would be the most badly damaged ones belonging to people with limited financial resources.

He said this was being done because the programmes underway to improve social services and rebuild the city did not also cover the repair of homes.

‘All the owners of destroyed homes will be given building materials,’ he said.

Reintegration of former soldiers

The Institute for the social and vocational reintegration of former soldiers, Irsem, has reintegrated 64,828 former Unita soldiers and their families in economic and social life in the provinces of Bié, Huambo, Huíla and Kwanza Sul since the programme started in March 2004. 

The programme involves 84 projects in which 30 partner organisations are also cooperating, in the areas of agriculture and livestock production, vocational training, community work, micro-credit schemes and small-scale activities to generate family income.

The nationwide programme is continuing and includes all soldiers demobilised within the framework of the peace and national reconciliation process. Following the Luena memorandum signed by the government and Unita, Irsem was given the responsibility of reintegrating 105,000 former Unita soldiers and their dependents and 33,000 former government troops.

Irsem is also responsible for programmes for a total of 131,547 soldiers demobilised after the peace agreements signed in Bicesse and Lusaka, as well as assisting vulnerable groups and reintegrating them into society and economic life. In partnership with the Association for Fighting Aids, Anaso, Irsem includes in its programmes education on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases. 

Reintegration, part of the general programme for the demobilisation of ex-servicemen, PGRD, is financed by the Angolan government, the World Bank and a few donors from the international community.

Cholera epidemic spreads

The World Health Organisation has given the government seven tonnes of medicines and protective equipment  to help fight the cholera epidemic that started in mid-February.  Fatoumata Diallo, the WHO representative in Angola, said that, though insufficient, she hoped this contribution would help to increase the impact of efforts by the government and its partners to control the epidemic.  She said the coordinated efforts of the WHO and the government showed their shared determination to improve the situation. 

There were daily reports from the provinces affected, where local officials assessed the medicines and hospital beds available and stepped up work to increase public awareness of preventive measures to be taken to stop the spread of cholera. 

Following a visit by Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso, the hospital in Ndalatando, capital of Kwanza Norte, received more medicines and another 50 beds. The local government also provided eight Land Rovers for use by health activists and for collecting patients. The Ministry of Health and the Angolan Armed Forces subsequently sent two more doctors and 12 health workers to the Ndalatando hospital.

In Luanda, the provincial secretariat of the Angolan Red Cross distributed disinfectant and soap to families in affected neighbourhoods. New health centres were set up in outlying neighbourhoods of Malanje.

Following a meeting with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, Fatoumata Diallo said there was already a team of specialists in epidemiology and water treatment working in the country and another two specialists would be arriving shortly. 

The Prime Minister announced in the National Assembly on 25 April that the government had made a supplementary allocation of US$5 million for immediate action on the epidemic. He said that President dos Santos had decided to set up a working group to prepare a plan to re-house families in the most affected places, like Boavista in Luanda.  

By the end of April, the total number of cholera cases in the country since 13 February, when the outbreak started, was 25,266, resulting in 1,034 deaths, a fatality rate of 4 percent.  There had been cholera cases in ten provinces – Bengo (1,671), Benguela (6,127), Bié (1), Huambo (13), Huíla (40), Malanje (1,989) Kwanza Norte (2,510), Kwanza Sul (13), Luanda (11,948), and Zaire (123).

New malaria treatment launched

A new medicine for treating malaria, Artemisin-based Combination Therapy, ACT, was publicly launched on 20 April by the Ministry of Health, in partnership with the WHO, Unicef and the United Nations Development Programme.  ACT is about 95 percent effective in curing malaria. 

A Ministry of Health source said the new treatment would be progressively introduced over the next 20 months, which meant acquiring large quantities of new drugs and preparing the human and material resources everywhere in the country to ensure the correct use, management and administration of the new treatment.  The source said the change in treatment was needed because the malaria parasite in Angola had developed resistance to the single drug treatment used so far.   During the transitional period, priority would be given to children, young people aged up to 18 and pregnant women, the source said. 

Filomena Fortes, national director of the anti-malaria programme, revealed that 125,718 people suffered from malaria in Angola between January and October last year and 11,648 of them had died, most of them children under five and pregnant women. 

Hospitals built and repaired

Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso laid the foundation stone of a municipal hospital in the commune of Saco Mar, Namibe Province, on 18 April. The 72-bed hospital is being built by a Chinese firm.  In Lubango, capital of Huíla Province, the previous day, the Minister presided over a ceremony granting the contract for the rehabilitation of the central hospital.    The 15-month programme, to cost an estimated US$48 million, will increase the hospital’s capacity from 300 to 450 beds.  A Chinese firm has been entrusted with the work. 

Daniel Silvano Tabita, director of public works in Zaire Province, said the local government had allocated US$4.3 million for the building of municipal hospitals in Mbanza Congo, the provincial capital, and Kuimba.  The 66-bed hospitals will be built by the Total Steel company and are programmed to be completed within twelve months. 

The current municipal hospitals operate in adapted buildings that were previously homes, causing great inconvenience to both staff and patients.  A hospital and two health centres will be built this year in Matala, Quilengues and Caconda, Huíla Province, as part of a special Ministry of Health programme. Basílio Kassoma, a ministry official, said the work would take twelve months and benefit 500,000 people.

He added that the Ministry of Health also had a programme worth more than US$300 million for the rehabilitation of four regional hospitals in Huíla, Huambo, Benguela and Malanje, as well as the construction of 20 municipal hospitals and 12 health centres and the acquisition of 86 ambulances.

‘National health strategy needed’

Minister of Health Sebastião Veloso has spoken of the need for a national health strategy to ensure human resources capable of dealing with current requirements, like the cholera epidemic. Speaking at a rally in Kwanza Norte Province to mark World Health Day on 7 April, he said these requirements included support for small communities, health posts and centres and also big hospitals. Under conditions in Angola, he said there was a need for community health workers to solve 70 percent of the basic problems of the population, advising people on clean water and healthy eating habits and ensuring proper immunisation.

Fatoumata Diallo, the World Health Representative in Angola, said that everyone should contribute to solving the problem of the lack of qualified personnel in the health sector, especially in rural areas.

Mine clearance proceeding

According to a report issued by the humanitarian coordinating group in Moxico Province, 1,553 anti-personnel mines, 138 anti-tank mines and more than 9,000 other explosive devices were deactivated in the province last year. This had resulted in eight million square metres of population resettlement areas and 169 kilometres of road being cleared. Together with mine clearance, more than 108,000 people were given talks on the danger of mines by four groups formed for this purpose

Mine clearance in Moxico Province is being carried out by sappers from the National Demining Institute, Inad, and the Angolan Armed Forces, as well as three foreign NGOs, the British Mines Advisory Group, Norwegian People’s Aid and Danish Christian Aid. 

Cristóvão Alfredo, head of operations of the British NGO Halo Trust, said that 2,873 anti-personnel mines, 117 ant-tank mines and 5,300 assorted unexploded ordnance pieces had been detonated by the Halo Trust in the municipality of Mavinga, Kuando Kubango Province, in the past three years. When they started work there in 2002, he said, they found 38 minefields, 21 of which had been cleared. Operations, he continued, had concentrated on major access routes, agricultural areas, the local aerodrome and the areas surrounding population centres.

Before 2002, he said, the local administration had been unable to carry out social projects, because the municipal seat and other parts of Mavinga were completely mined.  But now people could move freely and grow crops in previously mined areas, which was having very positive effects.

Cristóvão Alberto said the method used was manual and since January the 28 sappers had had electronic mine detectors, which made the work easier. Two-hundred and sixty-two young men recruited by the National Demining Institute, Inad, in eleven of the country’s provinces completed a basic demining course on 13 April. The 45-day course at the Technical Demining School in Viana, Luanda Province, was given by Inad specialists.

General Francisco Furtado, a member of the executive demining commission, speaking to those who completed the course, said that ‘in future we want to see the building of factories and the cultivation of agricultural fields in places where there are now mines, so as to guarantee the country’s development.’

He reminded them that mine clearance was made more difficult in Angola because a number of armies had been involved in the war, often without respecting the principles of war and laying mines without making sketches of where they were located.

SADC mine action committee meets in Luanda

Santana André Pitra ‘Petroff’, president of the National Inter-sector Demining and Humanitarian Assistance Commission, CNIDAH, revealed on 5 April that an estimated 1,300 square kilometres of the 75 percent Angola’s 1,246,700 square kilometres that had already been evaluated was contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance.  He was speaking at the opening of a meeting of specialists from the SADC Mine Action Technical Committee held in Luanda. 

Because the government was aware of its responsibilities, he continued, it had made more money available for mine clearance, assistance to victims and education on the risks of mines. With regard to assistance, last year, he said, 2,700 people had had access to physical rehabilitation services, and 6,500 people disabled in mine explosions had been reintegrated in society.

Demining work between 2002 and 2005 had resulted in the clearing of about 33,200 square kilometres, while the 75 percent of the country covered by a mine impact survey had made it possible to draw up a strategic plan. Under Angolan law, he added, employers had to include at least 2 percent disabled people among their personnel. 

Petroff went on to say that Angola was preparing to hold its second general elections, but that there were places where mines could prevent people from exercising their right to vote.  Because of this, the government had decided to establish an Executive Demining Commission comprising the three major operators – the Angolan Armed Forces, the National Demining Institute and the National Reconstruction Office.   The commission had been entrusted with implementing the 2006-2007 operational plan in support of national reconstruction.

He also expressed concern about mine clearance on Angola’s borders with the two Congos, Namibia and Zambia and spoke of the need to revive the work of the SADC Mine Action Technical Committee, stressing the importance of human solidarity in the fight to eliminate mines.

Despite four years of effective peace, he said, the human, psychological and material consequences of long years of war - from the anti-colonial war and the destabilising invasions of the former apartheid regime to the civil war - were incalculable.    

After visiting the National Demining Institute’s demining school, the delegates to the meeting decided to make it into a SADC regional training centre. They noted with satisfaction the efforts made by the Angolan government to deal with the scourge of mines and unexploded ordnance. Calling for greater commitment within SADC to pursuing the principles of the Ottawa Convention, they said that countries affected by mines should urgently clear their border areas, to ensure people’s safety and mobility.

It was further agreed that countries that had been directly or indirectly involved in armed conflicts against their neighbours should be willing to take part in mine clearance work to help them overcome this problem.

Fourth anniversary of peace marked by new social projects

The main rally in the country to mark the 4^th anniversary of the peace agreement signed by the government and Unita on 4 April 2002 was held in Cangamba, municipality of Luchazes, Moxico Province.  It was addressed by Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos. 

It was in Moxico Province that the first meeting took place between government forces and Unita in March 2002, followed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Luanda on 4 April. Many new social projects were inaugurated to mark the date.

In the central highland province of Huambo, this included housing for teachers in Alto Hama and an agency of the Banco Sol, while the foundation stone of a mineral water bottle filling plant was laid. A mother-and-child care centre and primary school were inaugurated in Katchiungo, and Caála, Tchinjenje and Tchicala Tcholoanga each has a new primary school.  A new electricity supply system was opened in the commune of Kambuengo. The commemoration programme included talks and a show put on by the Brazilian singer Roberta Miranda, who also performed in other provinces.

In Benguela Province, primary schools, teachers’ housing and public baths were inaugurated in the communes of Canhamela and Wiyangomba, municipality of Caimbambo. The provincial government in Lunda Norte, in the northeast, organised a week of meetings and sporting events and a number of educational and health establishments were inaugurated.  Reporting on the situation there, the Jornal de Angola noted that the number of children outside the school system had fallen considerably and that medical care was now more widely available.

Secondary schools had recently been opened in the municipalities of Cuango and Louremo and a higher pedagogical institute had been built.  Health centres had been rehabilitated or built in many municipalities and communes, while the central hospital in Cafunfo had been completely rehabilitated and equipped.  A medical centre had been opened in Xá Muteba, a school for training nursing assistants was built in Chitato and there was now a medical post in Louremo to cater for 30,000 people.

Five primary schools were inaugurated in Zaire Province.  There were also sports and cultural events and an ecumenical service. In Lubango, capital of the southern province of Huíla, six secondary school classrooms were opened in the premises of the support battalion of the general staff of the Angolan Armed Forces, FAA.  Paula Jacob, assistant provincial director of education, said this would help to reduce the number of children who could not attend secondary school owing to the lack of space. She said her office had established a partnership with FAA aimed at using spare rooms as classrooms, so as to cater for as many schoolchildren as possible and help soldiers to raise their level of schooling.

Since 2004, she said, more than 20 classrooms had been established in military premises, enabling more than 1,000 pupils to enrol. Aníbal Rocha, provincial governor in the northernmost province of Cabinda, opened a municipal hospital in the village of Chinga, about 15 km from the city of Cabinda. The 12-bed hospital, an expanded and refurbished health post, is part of a programme to shorten the distance people have to travel for consultations and treatment and to relieve pressure on the crowded central hospital.  It has two consulting rooms, a dental clinic, a radiology department, a clinical analysis laboratory, a maternity department, an observation room and an emergency ward. Two ambulances were donated to the hospital during the inauguration.

Many other social projects, especially schools and health centres, were inaugurated all over the country.

Education building programme