Dos Santos visits Namibia

President José Eduardo dos Santos paid a three-day state visit to Namibia, during which he attended the 14th anniversary of that country’s independence, celebrated on 21 March.

Talks between government delegations from the two countries covered a vast array of subjects, including agriculture, energy and water, mines, fisheries, education, employment, trade and industry, defence, home affairs, public administration, the environment and tourism and the rehabilitation of roads.

President dos Santos and his delegation also visited the Ruacaná dam in northern Namibia and Walvis Bay.

At Ruacaná, on the border between the two countries, Presidents dos Santos and Nujoma were shown a project to provide electric power to Xangongo in Angola’s Cunene Province, a line that will extend north to Matala. The hydroelectric scheme already supplies power to three border municipalities in Angola, one in Cunene and two in Kuando Kubango Province.

During the visit the two governments signed agreements on agriculture, livestock production, fisheries, health, energy, defence and security.

A final communiqué issued at the end of the visit said President Sam Nujoma had welcomed the climate of irreversible peace now prevailing in Angola and congratulated the Angolan government and people for this achievement. He also appealed to the international community to assist Angola’s social and economic reconstruction.

President dos Santos thanked the government and people of Namibia for all the support they had given his country over the years.

They both stated their commitment to the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment and the fight against HIV/Aids and other diseases.

They also expressed their concern about the difficult situation currently faced by the African continent, owing to heavy indebtedness, and they called on developed countries to reduce the debt as a matter of urgency.

Minister Kussumua asks Britain to support reconstruction

Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration João Baptista Kussumua has asked Britain for support and assistance for the holding of a donor conference and other programmes for Angola’s reconstruction and economic development.

During a meeting on 19 March with Foreign Office Minister Andrew Lloyd he said that Angola faced great challenges and had to resettle about five million people, both refugees and internally displaced people, which was why greater participation by the international community was needed through a donor conference. The Minister stressed this need during the many meetings he had during his one-week visit to Britain.

He said progress had been made in talks with the IMF and it was expected that an agreement would be signed in the next few months.

‘The financial and human capacities of the government are limited, in view of the huge and urgent task of normalising and improving the living conditions of Angolan communities,’ the Minister said, adding that between 2002 and 2003 the government had spent around US$157 million on assisting demobilised Unita soldiers and their families.

In addition, the government had allocated US$20 million to each of the country’s eighteen provinces for programmes to receive refugees and internally displaced persons during the period 2003-2004, while carrying out coordinated action to normalise life in communities in the areas of agriculture, education, health and the extension of state administration.

The Minister said social reintegration now involved far more than what was done a while ago, when it had amounted to people returning to their communities without attending to the needs of the targeted group in moving on from the emergency phase to development programmes. Now, he said, they were focussing on areas rather than groups, so as to avoid conflicts between the resettled and resident population.

Minister Kussumua had meetings with Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, Hilton Dawson, leader of the parliamentary group on Angola, and representatives of donor countries and NGOs.

President receives Cuban official

President José Eduardo dos Santos and Esteban Lazo, vice-president of Cuba’s State Council, discussed sectors in which Cuba can help Angola in this period of reconstruction at a meeting in Luanda on 19 March. The Cuban official said after the meeting that they had spoken of strengthening cooperation, particularly in the areas of education and health.

During his visit, Esteban Lazo also had meetings with Roberto de Almeida, president of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, António Pitra Neto, vice-president of the MPLA, Higino Carneiro, Minister of Public Works, and Cubans working in Angola.

He also laid wreaths on the monument to Angola’s first President, Agostinho Neto, and the grave of Cuban General Dias Arguelles, killed in the war to defend Angola against the invading army of apartheid South Africa.

Angola elected first vice-president of pan-African parliament

Angola was elected first vice-president of the African Union parliament on 18 March, its candidate, Fernando França Van-Dúnem, having received more votes than the other eight contenders for the post. The former Angolan Prime Minister and president of the National Assembly had been sworn in as a member of the parliament a few days earlier in a ceremony presided over by Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano.

Four other Angolan deputies were sworn in at the same time. They were Domingos Ginga and Efigénia Lima from the MPLA and Gerónimo Wanga and Abel Chivukuvuku from Unita, the biggest opposition party. The National Assembly had elected them to represent the country in the African parliament.

PM wants solution of ‘major problems’ of population in 2004

Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos expressed the hope on 9 March that 2004 would be a year of greater government responsibility and, above all, of solving the major problems of the population.

Speaking at the end of a meeting with the governors of the country’s eighteen provinces, he spoke of the targets set for this year and the successes and weaknesses in the work of different central and provincial government sectors over the past year in implementing programmes to ensure more and better social services.

The Prime Minister said the relaunching of the economy was already underway, through the combined efforts of the government and the public, private and cooperative sectors.

There were greater supplies of products from the countryside in the major urban centres, he said, owing to increases in agricultural and livestock production and greater government involvement in providing inputs, preparing land and ensuring animal repopulation and technical assistance.

With regard to action taken to combat hunger and poverty, the Prime Minister spoke of the success of the resettlement and social and vocational reintegration process and the re-launching of inland fishing.

These meetings, which are also attended by members of central government, are held every three months.

President opens HIV/Aids hospital

President José Eduardo dos Santos has opened the only hospital in the country for diagnosing and treating sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/Aids. The Hospital Esperança (hope), is part of the Américo Boavida hospital in Luanda.

Speaking to the press after the official opening on 2 March, the President said: ‘This unit is a sign of hope, a small step in the right direction.’ He said that patients would be able to come there for advice, diagnosis and medicines.

‘All those who were in despair, who did not know where to turn when they were unfortunate enough to catch the disease, now have a place where they can start to solve their problems and improve their state of health,’ he said, adding that although it was an important step it was still a small one in view of the extent of the problem. He said that a lot more had to be done and that the government would continue to work to create better medical care conditions for all Angolans who might be affected by HIV/Aids.

Dos Santos also referred to Angolan Women’s Day, which is celebrated on 2 March.

‘We would like on this day once again to express our solidarity, to say that we are with all the mothers, all the women who are building the new Angola with us,’ he said. It was women who suffered most as a result of Aids, which affected not only adults, but also children, he added.

Minister of Health Albertina Hamukwaya ruled out the possibility of creating similar units in other parts of the country in the short run. Such a project, she said, required training personnel, creating working conditions and acquiring drugs.

‘In the first phase, we are going to work here in Luanda and, as things develop, we shall try to extend the project to other provinces,’ she said, promising, however, that national hospitals would be provided with the human and material resources to attend to those who were HIV positive.

She went on to say that patients would not be hospitalised in the new unit, but would stay during the day for purposes of diagnosis, treatment, counselling and psychological support. All treatment, including laboratory tests, would be free of charge.

The hospital is a result of a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Angolan company Somobele, which was responsible for supplying the drugs.

It is directed by the National Programme for Combating Aids, which is headed by President dos Santos. The estimated cost of treating each patient is US$320 a year, to be 100 percent paid by the state. Consultations will be provided for twenty patients a day.

Somobele paid US$350,000 for the rehabilitation of the building that houses the new hospital, while the state provided the equipment. All the staff working there - doctors, nurses, laboratory workers, psychologists and others - are Angolans.

‘Angola played major role in bringing peace to DR Congo’

Aldo Ajello, European Union representative for the Great Lakes region, said in Luanda on 2 March that Angola had played a major role in events in DR Congo.

‘It was thanks to Angola that the reconciliation process in that country ended in a positive way,’ he told the press after a meeting with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos ‘Nandó’.

He went on to say that it had also been a difficult role, since at that time Angola had been a party to the conflict, a moderator in the reconciliation process while also facilitating peace between DR Congo and Uganda, the agreement on which was signed in Luanda.

With its vast experience of the peace process in DR Congo, he said, Angola could continue to play that role in the future, accompanying the transition in that country and giving political and military assistance.

He stressed the need for Angola’s participation in a UN conference on the Great Lakes region to start in November.

Angola’s presence in achieving a ‘stability pact’ was indispensable, in view of the positive role it played during the war, Ajello said.

OMA calls for law against domestic violence

Luzia Inglês ‘Inga’, secretary-general of the Organisation of Angolan Women, OMA, has called for ‘the urgent establishment of a law against domestic violence’.

Speaking in Caxito, Bengo Province, on 2 March, at a rally to mark Angolan Women’s Day, she said the experience of legal counselling showed that 60 percent of the victims of domestic violence were women and a law was needed to make it a crime, since it should be clearly discouraged in a state based on the rule of law.

As a result of the social and economic difficulties resulting from the war, she continued, this phenomenon had assumed alarming proportions that needed to be dealt with at the national level, with a view to taking exemplary measures. Advice centres were needed, run by people sensitive to gender issues and efficient working methods, so as to encourage women to go to them, she said.

OMA, she continued, had legal counselling centres throughout the country, where mainly women were told their rights and where to go to ensure that those rights were respected.

OMA, which was founded in 1962, played an important role in the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonialism.

Angolan Women’s Day was marked with rallies and cultural and other activities all over the country.

Angola to open accounts to international audit

The Angolan government’s accounts are to be audited by the International Finance Corporation, a private institution associated with the World Bank. Aguinaldo Jaime, assistant Minister to the Prime Minister told Business Report in South Africa, where he had been shortly before, that an IFC team would examine the accounts and subsequently put forward recommendations.

He went on to say that Angola would be signing an agreement with the World Bank in May, which would include economic reforms and open the way to an assistance packet in the first quarter of next year.

The reforms would include legislation to regulate the activity of non-banking institutions, a strategy aimed at ensuring the growth of areas like micro-credits.

Aguinaldo Jaime said the recent agreement with China on a loan for US$2,000 million, with very favourable conditions, was a sign of confidence in the Angolan government.

Coffee estates in Kwanza Sul being restored

About 40 coffee estates in Seles, Kwanza Sul Province, started to be restored in January this year. Coffee grower António Manuel told the Angop news agency that they were mobilised and hoped to relaunch the production of arabica coffee with the support of Angola’s National Coffee Institute.

Expressing optimism about the restoration of the estates, he spoke of the need for a coffee development fund providing loans to be repaid in more than five years.

Kwanza Sul had the great advantage of easy access to the port of Amboim for exports, he said, though he acknowledged that international coffee prices were now low.

Before independence, Kwanza Sul was the second coffee-producing province in the country, after Uíje. There are currently 60,000 hectares of land planted with coffee in the province, 15,000 of this cultivated by peasants, and 432 owners of medium-sized estates.

Congolese Minister visits Benguela Railway

Mbussa Nyawasing, Minister of Cooperation of DR Congo, had meetings with Benguela Railway, CFB, and Lobito port officials on 10 March.

A Benguela provincial government source said the visit was aimed at expanding bilateral cooperation, with a view to Congolese participation in the restoration of the railway. The CFB used to be used for sending such products as copper and zinc from Congo to the Atlantic seaboard and its restoration would boost the development of both countries, the source said.

The CFB extends for just over 1,346 km to the Zambian border and is the only rail link from Central Africa to the Atlantic.

As a result of the war, international traffic on the line ceased. Although traffic as far as the central province of Bié was resumed after the signing of the Bicesse Accords in 1991, it was interrupted a year later when war was resumed.

Reconstruction to cost US$4 billion

Minister of Public Works Higino Carneiro said in Lisbon in early March that Angola needs at least US$4 billion to rebuild infrastructure destroyed during the war, especially roads. He said Angola could not rebuild in two years what it had taken Portugal five hundred years to build and had been destroyed in thirty.

Invited to visit Portugal by his counterpart Carmona Rodrigues, Higino Carneiro was received by President Jorge Sampaio and Prime Minister Durão Barroso, with whom he discussed bilateral relations and new proposals for Portugal’s contribution to the reconstruction of Angola.

As coordinator of the Luanda management commission, he also met Santana Lopes, mayor of Lisbon, for talks on the urban development of Luanda. The union of Portuguese-speaking capital cities recently approved a project for the rehabilitation of downtown Luanda.

Increased fish catches in Benguela

With catches of 38,375 tonnes of fish in 2003, production levels in Benguela Province increased by 15 percent, despite equipment shortcomings.

Speaking to the Angop news agency, Carlos Martine, provincial director of the Ministry of Fisheries and the Environment, said that financing by the Economic and Social Fund was one of the factors that had made it possible to acquire new vessels and increase catches. However, he added, fishing vessels needed to be replaced if targets were to be met, since most had been in use for twenty-five years.

‘Although fifty percent of them are operational,’ he said, ‘they constantly have to go to the shipyards for maintenance and repairs.’

Because of this situation, he continued, his Ministry was planning to acquire credit lines from Spain and Brazil to support fishing companies. A delegation had gone to Brazil in January for this purpose.

Carlos Martine went on to say that there were prospects of producing 40,000 tonnes of salt over the next three years, following the distribution in February of equipment for the seven saltpans in the national production plan.

Sonangol and Esso announce 17th oil strike

Sonangol, the national oil company, and Esso Exploration Angola (an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation) have announced the 17th oil strike in offshore Block 15. According to a press release issued on 2 March, during tests the well produced 2,000 barrels a day.

Sonangol and Esso have already announced the discovery of sixteen wells in Block 15 over the past five years.

Sonangol is the concessionaire in Block 15 and Esso a partner with a 40 percent interest as operator.

United Kingdom donates US$5 million for humanitarian aid

The United Kingdom Department for International Development has donated US$5 million for humanitarian aid to Angola through three UN agencies operating in the country. British Ambassador John Thompson announced this on 25 March. He said it showed Britain’s continued support for Angola as it moved from humanitarian assistance to sustainable development.

Unicef will receive US$3.3 million of this sum, aimed at reducing mother-and-child mortality, US$1.3 million will go to the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, to help Angolans returning to the country, and US$370,000 will go the WHO to support the programme against HIV/Aids.

The United Kingdom has contributed US$36 million for humanitarian aid in Angola since 1999.

Angola complies with SADC recommendation on GM products

Liz Matos, director of the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre, has welcomed the recent approval by the Council of Ministers of a decree banning the entry into the country of transgenic and genetically modified products.

Speaking to Angop in Luanda on 24 March, she said the law put Angola in the same position as other SADC countries on this issue, since it was the only country in the region that GM seeds were entering. By permitting this, she continued, the government had been putting local varieties of seeds at risk, since some of those who received GM seeds were using them for planting.

SADC recommends that member countries should not allow food to enter without regulation and control systems, and if they do accept seeds they should be milled or sterilised before being distributed to the population.

Liz Matos said the most sensible thing would be to forbid the consumption of these products, since there were implications for the environment and agriculture and the effects on human health were unknown.

‘Countries that receive food aid, like Angola, must demand unmodified products,’ she said, ‘because there are many more natural products in the world.’

Children in Bié immunised against diseases

The supervisor of the vaccination programme in Bié Province, Oscar Eduardo Bambi, said that 11,604 children had been immunised against TB since January. During the same period, he said, 16,228 children were immunised against polio and another 300,000 against measles, yellow fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and other diseases.

In addition, he continued, 10,000 pregnant women and women of childbearing age had been vaccinated against tetanus.

Bambi said the routine campaign had been carried out in all the municipalities in the province and they were now going to extend it to more remote villages and settlements.

Water projects

Three million US dollars have been spent on the restoration of clean water supplies to municipal seats and a number of communes in Benguela Province. Provincial governor Dumilde Rangel revealed this at the end of a visit to the commune of Canjala, 113 and electric power systems, which had not functioned for years. A source from Emcil, the company doing the work, said an electric pump would be used to pump the water, powered by a set of generators installed last August.

Meanwhile, Abel João da Costa, provincial water director in the southern province of Huíla, said that this year the local government would be investing more than US$300,000 in repairing the fresh water supply to Chipindo, 456 km north of the city of Lubango. He said fourteen water holes would be drilled and wells would be repaired, as part of a programme to provide better services. Similar projects would be carried out in other places in the north and east of the province, he said, while others had been completed in the south.

Da Costa said the Huíla government had earmarked US$450,000 for rehabilitating the clean water supply system in the provincial capital, Lubango. This was a very small amount, he said, in view of the advanced state of deterioration of the system, on which no restoration work had been done for the past fifty years. Just replacing the 11-km pipe bringing water from Tundavala would cost an estimated US$680,000, he said.

It is estimated that the complete rehabilitation of the system will cost US$4 million. It will also need to be expanded, since the current system was planned for a city with a population of 100,000, a number that has now grown to more than two million.

Reconstruction of Mbanza Congo to start soon

The reconstruction of facilities in Mbanza Congo, capital of the northern province of Zaire, which were destroyed in the war is expected to start in the next few months.

Speaking to the press in Mbanza Congo, Minister of Public Works Higino Carneiro said feasibility studies had already been completed and now a date had to be set to assess tenders for the projects.

He said he had also come to the province to examine with the local authorities the opening of a road link between Zaire and Cabinda provinces.

Josina Machel Hospital will provide ‘first class care’

Patients who come to Josina Machel Hospital in Luanda next year will have first class care, owing to the rehabilitation of the hospital, which will be completed in June 2005. Japanese Ambassador Tsuneshige Liyama stated this at a ceremony to mark the completion of the first phase of rehabilitation, which cost the Japanese government US$5.5 million.

The first phase started in April last year and involved improving the sewage system, roads, elevators and power sub-station, as well as renovating the surgical wings. The total cost will be an estimated US$36 million and will include the rebuilding and refurbishing of the five operating theatres, the sterilisation unit, the radiology unit, an ultrasound unit, the emergency ward, the mortuary, the kitchens and the laundry.

Deputy Minister of Health José Van-Dúnem spoke of the need to allocate resources and train maintenance staff, ‘to make sure that what we are now gaining lasts a long time and ensures what we want, which is to provide quality service for our people’.

Mining programme results ‘satisfactory’

The operational plan for mine clearance approved by the Council of Ministers in October 2003 was successfully completed about six months ago with satisfactory results, according to Balbina Dias da Silva, programme coordinator of the National Demining Commission. She stressed the need to work with partners, like the Italian NGO Intersós, for example, which was now working in Huíla and Kuando Kubango provinces to clear main and secondary roads, so as to permit the free movement of people and goods.

‘Of course we are not going to solve this problem overnight, since that is virtually impossible, but a lot of work has been done and the results can be regarded as positive,’ she said. Areas where there were still serious problems, she continued, were Bié and Malanje, where more work was needed to prevent the many accidents there still were.

She said that though the army was involved in demining and detonating explosive devices, a big problem was the lack of maps of mined areas. The Dasfaxe NGO was carrying out a survey of the effects of mines on the population, in order to know where they were located, which would make it possible to prepare a realistic programme.

António Tchitumba, local director of the National Demining Institute, Inad, earlier told the Angop news agency that 687 anti-personnel mines and 205 anti-tank mines were defused and destroyed last year in the eastern province of Moxico by foreign NGOs. During the same period, he said, more than 6,000 explosive devices, including shells and hand grenades, were also destroyed.

The NGOs, he said, were the Norwegian People’s Aid, the British Mine Consultancy Group and DSA from Sweden. They had concentrated on clearing mines from roads and minefields identified in municipal and communal seats, he said.

Bié prepares conditions for return of refugees

Isabel Afonso Chaguedela, provincial director of the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration in Bié Province, said in Kuito on 18 March that the local government was working to prepare social and economic conditions for the organised return of Angolan refugees in Zambia, Namibia, DR Congo and Congo Brazzaville.

She said that about 6,000 refugees in those countries would officially start to return in April. A transit centre where they would be housed before being sent to their home areas was being built on the outskirts of Kuito, she said. They would be assisted with food distributed by the World Food Programme and NGOs working in the region, but they would face difficulties of all kinds and would need support, she stressed.

US$25 million for combating malaria

Angola is to receive US$25 million from the World Health Organisation Global Fund for combating malaria. The Fund is to finance projects in a number of countries in East and Southern Africa. Angola will also be receiving US$20 million from the World Bank for action against HIV/Aids, TB and malaria. It was within this context that Minister of Health Albertina Hamukwaya went to Geneva in mid-March to attend a meeting of the Global Fund, as representative for East and Southern Africa.

The previous week representatives of Angola’s National Programme for Malaria Control, WHO, Unicef, USAid and NGOs had met in Luanda to discuss how best to use the Global Fund money to reduce the number of cases of malaria.

A Government project to change the policy of treating malaria involves the large-scale use of long-lasting impregnated mosquito nets, intermittent and preventive treatment of pregnant women, laboratory tests and strengthening the Ministry of Health institutionally, as the body that will lead the whole process.

A vast campaign of information and education is also planned. Changes were found to be needed because cloroquin was ceasing to be effective, resistance to it having risen to 50 percent in some areas.

Minister explains reintegration policy

Speaking at a meeting of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in Geneva on 8 March, João Baptista Kussumua, Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration, said the government had adopted lasting and sustainable social reintegration as the decisive precondition for preventing conflicts, reducing poverty and promoting equality, respect and dignity among Angolans.

The Minister spoke of the new emphasis in action of social reintegration. Previously, he said, not sufficient attention had been paid to their development needs.

Now, he said, reintegration meant not only resettlement, but also and above all, economic self-sufficiency.

‘The return is merely the end of the emergency phase and the start of the development process,’ he said.

The Minister said they were now focussing on areas, rather than on groups.

‘Since there are different interests and target groups, as well as the resident population, competing for access to the same resources and services,’ he said, ‘ there are potentially big risks of new conflicts arising if attention is not extended to all categories of people in the areas.’

Kussumua explained that social reintegration also involved boosting the mechanisms for dialogue and decision-making between civil society and the government, and helping to consolidate democracy and national harmony.

He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring the return and resettlement of the about five million people who were directly affected by the war, particularly displaced persons, refugees, demobilised soldiers, disabled people and children separated from their families.

The Minister’s visit to Switzerland was also to discuss with the UNHCR the repatriation of about a million Angolans from abroad.

Course for traditional midwives

The second course for traditional midwives held in Viana, on the outskirts of Luanda, ended on 8 March. Organised by the National Committee for the Advancement of Rural Women, Comur, and supported by the Ministry of Health and the oil company BP Angola, it included classes in obstetrics, neo-natal care, assisting a birth and how to send difficult cases to hospital.

Speaking to the Angop news agency, Georgina Correia of Comur said the course administered by a Ministry of Health instructor had benefited thirty-two traditional midwives from rural parts of Viana. The work done by these women, she said, was helping to reduce the rate of mother-and–child mortality.

At the closing ceremony, which was part of the commemorations of International Women’s Day, certificates were handed out, as well as agricultural kits and gloves and other equipment and products to improve the work of the midwives.

Traditional midwives started to be organised and trained in the eighties by the Organisation of Angolan Women, which sees their work as a contribution to the national health system.

Police destroy hectares of cannabis

In January and February this year, the national police destroyed several hectares of cannabis in Chongoroi, 156 km from Benguela. A police source said the cannabis was being grown for commercial purposes. The sale and use of drugs, he said, had led to an increase in the crime rate, particularly homicides, physical violence and theft.

Weapons collection

The national police command in the commune of Dombe Grande, Benguela Province, collected 380 assorted weapons in the illegal possession of civilians between December 2003 and February this year, according to police commander Agostinho Cambeya. He said they included AKM machineguns, pistols and ammunition. He said the operation had been carried out with the cooperation of local traditional authorities and farmers. The police, he explained, had simultaneously launched an awareness campaign on the danger of weapons, so as to ensure that large numbers were voluntarily handed in.

The local police commander in Chongoroi, Benguela Province, Felisberto Branco, said that between January and February this year the police had seized 500 weapons in the illegal possession of civilians. He said the operation would be extended to other places where state administration had been restored.

Meanwhile, the first phase of a series of talks on the disarming of the population ended in Bailundo, about 80 km north of the city of Huambo, on 20 March. Organised by the Ministry of the Interior, the talks were attended by members of municipal administrations, traditional authorities, political parties and youth organisations.

The national commander of the police, José Alfredo Ekuikui, announced on 17 March that a drive to disarm the civilian population would soon start, now that about 40 years of war in Angola had ended.

During the war, thousands of Angolans acquired firearms to defend themselves and their property.

The talks on disarming civilians were also part of a police modernisation programme that included talks on the danger of Aids to society, theatrical performances with the Voices of Africa group and the showing of films.

Government provides funds for people made homeless by floods

The local government in the central province of Huambo has allocated US$300,000 to assist families made homeless by the heavy rains in the region.

Provincial governor António Paulo Cassoma said metal sheets and other building materials had already been acquired to give to the families affected.

In addition, he said, the government had acquired seeds and fertilisers to assist the current phase of the agricultural year.

The rains destroyed 1,558 homes and caused the collapse of nine schools, two health posts, and seventeen bridges, as well as washing out some access paths.

Representatives of national and foreign NGOs in Huambo had met earlier in the month to discuss food aid for flood victims, as well as to present a report on food needs for the month of March.

Crops losses in the whole of the province as a result of the heavy rains were estimated to be 52,765 tonnes of grain and 6,961 tonnes of beans.

Investment programme in Bié Province

João Baptista Kussumua, Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration, visited the central province of Bié in early March to monitor the implementation of the public investment programme and see what was being done to improve the living conditions of the population.

He told the Angop news agency that a group of experts had come to the province ten days earlier for preliminary information gathering. Central government, he said, wished to see to what extent work was being carried out and whether it corresponded to state resources allocated to the province.

He said it was the government’s hope that the provincial rehabilitation programme launched in late 2003 and early 2004 was going well and creating expectations that people’s lives would soon be back to normal.

Among the major projects are the restoration of schools, hospitals and roads in all municipalities in the province, as well as the construction of bridges and other facilities destroyed in the war.

During his visit, the Minister visited the construction sites of the Kuito municipal administration, primary and secondary schools and the monument cemetery. He also went to a children’s home run by his Ministry, where 80 orphaned and abandoned children live.

He was briefed on the results of the first phase of exhuming and re-burying bodies that were buried in a makeshift manner during the post-election war, and on the living conditions of former Unita soldiers and their dependents and resettled displaced people, and work done to reintegrate them in society.

Chibia medical centre restored

The Huíla provincial government spent US$200,000 on restoring the medical centre in the municipality of Chibia, 42 km south of Lubango, the capital of the southern province. Work was started on it in January, as part of the programme to improve basic social services and the public investment programme for 2004.

The centre has fourteen beds, a doctor and five nurses, and is therefore small for a municipality with a population of 133,701. There are also fourteen medical posts in the four communes it comprises.

Minister of Territorial Administration inspects social projects in Huambo
Faustino Muteka was in the central highland province of Huambo in early March to see what progress had been made on social projects there. On his arrival, he gave school materials and a tractor to a children’s home near the provincial capital airport.

At a meeting with local government officials he was briefed on the implementation of economic, social and financial programmes for this year.

In the afternoon, he went to the municipality of Caála, about 23 km from the city of Huambo, where he went to see work being done on the building of schools and health centres.

Strategic plan for health

Infant mortality and malnutrition rates could be reduced by 50 percent by the year 2008, according to the national strategic plan. Action to be taken to attain this goal was discussed in Luanda in early March at a meeting of the national public health directorate.

Adelaide de Carvalho, national director of public health, said the plan was also aimed at reducing maternal mortality by 30 percent through vaccination, greater epidemiological vigilance, health promotion and increasing the availability and quality of services in health centres.

Deputy Minister of Health José Van-Dúnem stressed the need to pay special attention to cold storage facilities, as well as training and supervision of work, so as to consolidate gains made, especially in anti-polio and measles campaigns.

He promised improvements in supplies of essential drugs for common diseases.

Seed distribution

Francisco Quibonde Francisco, head of the municipal office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Cangadala, 30 km south of the city of Malanje, said that 5,033 families there had received seeds provided by his office in the second half of 2003.

He said they had distributed 8,000 tonnes of maize, beans and vegetable seeds for planting in 516 hectares of land, as well as fertilisers and farm implements. He spoke of the continued presence of mines in the soil as the main difficulty in growing crops.

Angolan Red Cross assists vulnerable families

Since June last year, 550,000 vulnerable families in the central province of Bié have received food donated by the Angolan Red Cross, according to Angelo Sassongo, provincial representative of the Red Cross, who said the donations were mainly of maize, beans, cooking oil and soya.