UN official stresses Angola’s role in Great Lakes settlement

The UN Secretary-General’s special representative for the Great Lakes, Ibrahim Fall, has said that Angola played an important part in achieving a settlement in DR Congo and should therefore participate actively in an international conference on the Great Lakes region.

Speaking in Luanda on 22 April after a meeting with President José Eduardo dos Santos, he said it was ‘impossible to talk about peace in the Great Lakes region without Angola’s active participation’.

Ibrahim Fall, who delivered messages to President dos Santos from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, and Alpha Omar Konaré, president of the African Union Commission, said the UN and the AU were preparing to hold an international conference on the Great Lakes region in Tanzania in November. A big summit was also planned for June next year.

Afonso Van-Dúnem ‘Mbinda’, Angolan representative on the preparatory commission for the Great Lakes summit, said a summit meeting might be held in Luanda next month, attended by the countries involved in the issue. He agreed that Angola could play an important role in ending war in the region, in view of its influence there.

He said that because of the many geo-strategic interests involved – both Europe and the USA – this being one of the richest regions in Africa, ‘there is a need to seek the shared interests and common denominators that always exist in politics’.

Ambassador to UN appeals for international aid

Speaking in New York on 6 April, Angola’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ismael Gaspar Martins, appealed for international aid for the reconstruction of Angola.

Addressing a Security Council meeting on the current situation in Afghanistan, the Ambassador said the reconstruction of that war-devastated country depended on international assistance.

Referring to the international donor conference held in Berlin days earlier to raise funds for rebuilding Afghanistan, one of the major victims of recent military confrontations, Ismael Martins praised Germany and other organising countries for the results of the conference.

At the same time, he called for similar initiatives for other countries that had also come out of wars, citing the particular case of Angola.

The Berlin conference pledged US$8.2 billion to finance the reconstruction of Afghanistan over a three-year period.

Minister of Finance visits Britain

Minister of Finance José Pedro de Morais paid a week-long visit to Britain in April.

During his stay he had meetings with officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the departments of International Development, Finance and Trade and Industry, the Bank of England and British Petroleum, among others.

Among the issues discussed were trade and investment opportunities within the context of the new development challenges in Angola, economic reform, good governance and Angola’s relations with international financial institutions.

The Minister spoke of relations between Angola and the IMF at a meeting of the British Angola Forum in London.

Measures to promote Human Rights

Virgílio Faria, director for international organisations in the Ministry of External Relations, announced in Geneva that the government was preparing a national plan for the promotion of human rights. Addressing a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission, he said the aim was to guarantee more rights, especially those enshrined in international conventions and agreements.

Faria went on to say that representatives of Angolan civil society and international partners would be invited to participate in the identification of the main problems hindering the protection of human rights in Angola and in setting out the priorities and mechanisms for solving them.

He added that constitutional reforms and amendments to the law were currently taking place in Angola.

Internationally, Angola intended to ratify all the conventions on human rights, cooperate with international legal institutions on issues like crimes against humanity and take part in international events related to human rights, he said.

Southern African road links

A programme for the rehabilitation of roads between Angola and a number of Southern African countries will be drawn up by the end of 2004. The project, to cost €160 million, is to be financed by the European Union through its development fund.

Speaking to Angop on 23 April, João Samuel Kaholo, the Angolan acting director for infrastructure and services of the Southern Africa Development Community secretariat, said the stretch to be rehabilitated runs from Otavo in Namibia to Santa Clara, Lubango, Benguela and Luanda in Angola.

He said that in Luanda he had consulted the ministries of Transport, Planning and Public Works, the National Highways Institute and the management of the Lobito Corridor, with a view to a feasibility study and technical drawings for that stretch.

He had already visited Mozambique and Tanzania for the same purpose, and would be going to Namibia and Zambia the following week, he said.

João Samuel Kaholo is head of the Energy, Transport, Communications, Tourism and Water sector of SADC, which is based in Gaborone, Botswana.

Building work in Huambo Province

The government allocated contract work on 21 April for reconstruction projects worth US$12,775,246 to be carried out in Huambo Province over the next eleven months. The ceremony was presided over by Minister of Public Works Higino Carneiro, who had arrived in Huambo that morning.

The projects included the reconstruction of the government palace, which was destroyed in 1992, and the National Bank of Angola, the rehabilitation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development building and the completion of the Caála municipal hospital. All the work was given to local contractors.

Paolo Kassoma, the provincial governor, presented the Minister with a portfolio of other projects, including the repair of roads in the provincial capital and of ravines in places on the outskirts of the city, to be assessed by experts in Luanda.

He said this marked the official start of the reconstruction of the province and would help to reduce unemployment.

The Minister said that other projects in the pipeline were the rebuilding of the provincial court and the rehabilitation of Huambo city library. He added that preliminary studies had been completed on the building of 1,000 units of social housing within the framework of an agreement between the Angolan and Chinese governments.

New oil strike in Block 32

Sonangol, the national oil company, and Total E & P Angola have announced a new deepwater oil strike in Block 32.

Initial tests in the new well, Canela 1, produced 6,800 barrels a day. The new discovery is about 15 km southeast of the Gindungu 1 well, which was the first discovery in Block 32 in 2003.

Building materials prospects in Uíje Province

Mankenda Ambroise, Deputy Minister of Geology and Mines, has said that Uíje Province could start to produce lime and other mineral building materials this year. He was speaking to the press shortly before leaving for that northern province in mid-April.

‘We have already granted mining rights for seven projects, four of which are for building materials, so as to rehabilitate facilities and create jobs for people in the province,’ he said, adding that there were another five projects for diamond mining.

The Deputy Minister went on to say that his Ministry also planned to start copper and lead production, for which mining rights had been granted to private companies. Apart from the extraction of the resources, he said, it would create a new development focal point in the province.

Prospecting, which would make it possible to assess the exact quantity of minerals, where they were located and when extraction could start, had started earlier this year, he said.

Rehabilitation of Cavaco agricultural valley

Abrantes Carlos, the provincial director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Benguela, told the Angop news agency on 8 April that US$1.5 million was going to be spent this year on the rehabilitation of the Cavaco agricultural valley on the outskirts of the city of Benguela.

Speaking during a visit to the area by Joaquim David, Minister of Industry, he said that most of the work in the 3,811-hectare area involved replacing the irrigation system. Once pumps had been installed and the drainage channels were repaired, he said, water would start to flow in from the Catumbela River.

In this way, he continued, through the public investment programme, the provincial government planned to increase production on land near the Benguela-Lobito road, which needed water if it were to be fully used.

His Ministry, he said, was going to divide the land into plots of five to ten hectares each to be distributed to individuals or groups of farmers, and this would also create more jobs.

Fisheries training centre opened

A fisheries training centre was opened on 2 April at the National Institute for Support for the Fishing Industry in Luanda, aimed at teaching Angolans working in the sector techniques of quality control and fish processing for export and the national market.

The trainees will also be given classes in computing and the administrative organisation of fishing companies.

Minister of Fisheries Salomão Xirimbimbi opened the centre, which was set up through sponsorship by the Spanish government.

MPLA secretary-general visits Food Technology Centre

Julião Mateus Paulo ‘Dino Matross’, secretary-general of the MPLA, spoke highly of the work of the Food Technology Centre opened last year as part of the Chianga Institute of Agricultural Research on the outskirts of the city of Huambo.

Accompanied by Faustino Muteka, Minister of Territorial Administration and head of the group monitoring progress in Huambo Province, and by Huambo provincial governor Paulo Kassoma, Dino Matross paid a lengthy visit to the centre.

Hilário Salupula, head of the centre, said it had been started in order to make full use of the fruit grown in and around Huambo. He said they were using fruit like avocado and passion fruit to make soap, face creams, oil, juices and wines of different types.

The delegation visited the Faculty of Agricultural Science, the building where the veterinary medicine course is to be taught, the soil analysis laboratory and the offices of the Chianga Institute of Agricultural Research. Faculty officials asked the secretary-general to help solve problems of housing for teaching staff and student hostels.

Created in 1976, the faculty was closed down for many years because of the war and was reopened in 2003, when it took in 254 first year students.

European Union funds for economic and social projects

During the first quarter of this year, the EU allocated US$200 million to support economic and social projects in Angola.

Robert Brindi, the Netherlands Ambassador to Angola, said that most of the money was for agriculture, especially supplies of seeds and farm tools, the aim being to feed communities that had recently come out of the war and free them from dependence on donors. Other projects included the building of schools, hospitals and health posts in suburban and rural areas.

The Ambassador said that part of the money was also to support Luanda government projects aimed at solving some of the major problems affecting the city.

During a working lunch with EU ambassadors a few days earlier, Higino Carneiro, coordinator of the Luanda management commission, had requested support for health, education, clean water and electricity supplies and the treatment of solid waste.

HIV/Aids patients to be protected by law

The Council of Ministers approved a law on 29 April aimed at protecting all people affected by HIV or Aids. The law sets out the rights and duties of those affected, health staff and other people at risk, and the population as a whole.

A press release issued after the meeting said the government reaffirmed its commitment to leading the fight against HIV/Aids by improving the health system and ensuring the purchase and distribution of medicines, including anti-retrovirals.

It also expressed its commitment to guaranteeing the promotion and protection of the rights of infected children, and the boosting of information, education and research in this area.

12,576 Aids cases registered

According to Ministry of Health statistics, 12,576 Aids cases were registered in Angola from 1985 to December 2003. These figures are believed to fall short of the total, however. Current estimates show the rapid growth of the disease, which could have serious demographic, social, economic and cultural consequences.

The Ministry of Health and its partners – the World Health Organisation and the Italian government – carried out a survey, from June 2001 and November 2003, of the number of HIV positive pregnant women in nine provinces and of the risk factors in two others.

The most significant results were that Cunene Province, bordering on Namibia, had the highest rate of HIV infection (12.9 percent) and Lunda Sul, in the northeast, the highest rate of syphilis (13.2 percent). The average rate of HIV/Aids infection in pregnant women is 4.5 percent in Luanda and 0.7 percent in Malanje. The four other provinces with the highest rates were Cabinda and Benguela (each with 3.2 percent), Moxico (2 percent) and Lunda Sul (1.5 percent).

The full results of the survey were presented at a seminar in Luanda on 22 April. Opened by Deputy Minister of Health José Van-Dúnem, it was seen as an important opportunity to review all available information on HIV/Aids and to seek ways of achieving more fruitful cooperation with all partners involved in combating the disease.

Government to promote teacher training in national languages

Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos ‘Nandó’ has said that the government is to promote teacher training in national languages and encourage bilingual education. Speaking at the opening of a conference to discuss the national consultation on the plan of action for education, on 21 April, he said that reforms in this area should include ‘mechanisms adapted to our realities, so as to provide education for all and ensure that education reaches rural areas, with a view to the gradual reduction of illiteracy’.

The Prime Minister said education in the country was a matter for concern and that changes were needed to ensure that quality education was available to everyone. To be able to participate actively in the country’s reconstruction and development, he said, as well as to meet the requirements of an ever more demanding labour market, quality education was essential.

The public consultation was promoted by the Ministry of Education, in partnership with Unesco, within the framework of post-conflict reconstruction. It involves bringing together public institutions, representatives of civil society, the private sector and United Nations agencies to reach a consensus on the broad lines of the education for all plan of action.

Clinical analysis laboratories in Benguela

Five clinical analysis laboratories were established in health centres in Benguela Province during the first quarter of this year. José Augusto Gonçalves, head of the public health and endemic disease control department, said the purpose was to improve the quality of analyses and reduce the mortality rate in the province.

He said courses had been given to eighteen laboratory technicians and each of the five municipalities where laboratories had been installed would have two technicians. Meanwhile, his department would work to equip other health centres, so as to ensure better services for the population.

Social Support Fund finances projects in Zaire Province

The Social Support Fund, Fas, is to spend an estimated US$120 million over the next four years on the building and rehabilitation of social facilities in communities in Zaire Province. This was revealed in Mbanza Congo, the provincial capital, on 19 April by Minister of Planning Ana Dias Lourenço, during the official launching of the third phase of the Fas programme.

She added that 94 percent of the money had already been made available by the World Bank and donor countries.

The ceremony was attended by Cândida Celeste, Minister of the Family and the Advancement of Women, and representatives of the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme, Chevron Texaco and some donor countries.

They later visited historical sites like the Kulimbimbi cathedral and the graves of the old Congo kings, as well as a child centre, a vocational training centre and the site where social housing is to be built.

UNHCR provides funds for repatriation of Angolans

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, is to spend US$8 million this year on the second phase of repatriating more than 300,000 Angolans. This was announced on 24 April by Wendy Chamberlin, assistant commissioner of the UNHCR, at the end of a three-day visit to Angola.

Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration João Baptista Kussumua had earlier announced that during the second phase, to start in late May, it was expected that from 80,000 to 90,000 would return by next December: about 40,000 from DR Congo, 10,000 from Namibia, the same number from Congo Brazzaville and an unspecified number from Zambia.

Repatriation was suspended in late 2003, owing to impassable roads as a result of heavy rains.

Benguela prepares to receive about 2,000 refugees

The authorities in Benguela Province have been creating conditions to receive 1,616 Angolan refugees at the start of the repatriation process due to start in May.

Maria Idalina Carlos, provincial director of the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration, said they would be coming from Namibia, Zambia and DR Congo. Benguela already had a transit centre from which they would be assisted to return to their home areas, she said, adding that the greatest problem was the shortage of food and other essential goods. However, help was expected from the World Food Programme and the UNHCR.

The Ministry had selected personnel to register the returnees, so as to facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid.

A number of families had already returned to the province of their own accord last year, she said.

3.7 million children registered in the country

During the free registration of children campaign carried out in the country by the Ministry of Justice between 2001 and 2003, 3.7 million children were registered, according to data revealed in Luanda on 14 April by Mario Ferrari, the United Nations Development Fund and Unicef representative in Angola.

Addressing a meeting to review the registration of minors, he said that this number had been attained only because of the efforts made by the government and its partners. He spoke of the need to change the campaign strategy in the new situation in the country created by peace, the great population movement and resettlement and the opening of access routes to remote places where there were still children to be registered.

One of the great difficulties in establishing campaign statistics, Ferrari said, was the high fertility rate in Angola, it being estimated that more than 1.9 million children were born during the campaign, increasing the number to be registered. More personnel were also needed to register births.

The meeting was attended by provincial representatives of the Ministry of Justice, officials from all the registration offices in Angola and representatives of national and international NGOs.

Government investment in Lubango

The municipal administration in Lubango, capital of Huíla Province, has invested about US$1 million in since the beginning of the year in projects to build and rehabilitate social and economic facilities.

The investment was part of a programme to improve basic conditions in the city.

Tomas Chibamba, head of the administration’s documents and information centre, said the money was being spent on repairing bridges and secondary and tertiary roads, among other things.

Building work in Zaire Province

A project to build schools, health posts and homes for teaching staff is being carried out in the municipalities of Nzeto and Tomboco in the northern province of Zaire.

António dos Santos Júnior, director of the programme for the development of fishing communities in the north, which is in charge of the government-funded project, said the aim was to help to lessen the difficulties faced by the people in respect of education and health.

The building work is being done by two Angolan contractors and completion is expected by June, he said, adding that more money would then be allocated for other social facilities in the region.

Tree planting started in Luanda

Work was started in Luanda on 14 April to plant 2,500 trees of different types, as part of the programme of action of the Luanda Management Commission.

The provincial government had entrusted three youth organisations concerned about environmental issues with the planting programme. Januário Augusto, secretary-general of the Mayombe Environmental Network, said the campaign involved 500 young men and women members of these organisations who would also see to the maintenance and preservation of the trees during the period of growth.

Many of the local inhabitants were also reported to be ready to take part in the work.

Factory to produce 150 types of medicine

The Brazilian company Formi Farmacêutica is to invest US$20 million in a medicine factory in Angola to be built over the next two years. It will be owned by the Angolan state.

According to Renato Pimazzoni, director of the Brazilian company, it will make it possible to reduce imports and, therefore, lead to a fall in the prices of pharmaceutical products, especially anti-retrovirals. It will produce 25,000 units a month of the 150 medicines on the World Health Organisation list, including vaccines for many diseases.

The building work, expected to start this month, will initially employ 5,000 people. Running the factory will require 1,000 people. Before it opens, at least 200 Angolan technicians will be trained in Brazil in factories belonging to the group.

Minister of Agriculture in Huíla Province

Gilberto Buta Lutucuta, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was in Huíla Province in early April to visit the Matala canal, accompanied by members of the government’s economic team. They saw plots of land chosen by the Ministry to grow grain and vegetables.

‘We are going with an economic team so as to have an idea of the future administration of the areas created and the management of the undertaking, which will be handed over to private farmers,’ he said before leaving for Huíla.

The Minister also visited the Humpata irrigation project, which was nearly completed and would shortly be handed over to the government.

Referring to agricultural output, he said it had increased in most of the areas under cultivation in 2003, although heavy rains had affected production in some cases.

He expected a substantial increase in output this year, owing to the expansion of cultivated areas and the involvement of former displaced persons and demobilised soldiers.

Cattle vaccination

The municipal agriculture and livestock department is to vaccinate about 100,000 head of cattle against diseases this year in Chibia, about 42 km south of Lubango, capital of Huíla Province. Interviewed by Angop on 9 April, Augusto Carlos Sabalo, head of the department, said the number could be increased if the authorities replenished the stock of vaccines frequently, so as to prevent interruptions in the programme. He said at least nineteen veterinarians had been mobilised for the campaign, which would take place at 30 posts in three communes in the municipality.

It was meanwhile announced in Balombo, Benguela Province, that the local veterinary department planned to vaccinate more than 2,000 head of cattle during the campaign underway since 1 April. Mateus Mário, head of the department, said they had sufficient vaccines and that four veterinary technicians were doing the work. The municipality of Balombo, 183 km from the city of Benguela, has traditionally been one of the most important agricultural and livestock regions of the province.

Jorge Almeida, head of veterinary services in Huambo Province, said they planned to vaccinate 56,000 animals during the campaign that opened in mid-April. He said four vaccination groups, three of them mobile, had been formed for this purpose.

General demobilisation and reintegration programme for former soldiers

A general demobilisation and reintegration programme for former soldiers was launched in Caála, Huambo Province, on 27 April. During the initial phase, it is to cover 3,000 of the estimated 100,000 former soldiers in Angola.

Officially opened by João Baptista Kussumua, Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration, the plan is part of a regional strategy supported by the World Bank and forty international partners, within the framework of peace and recovery efforts in the Great Lakes region.

The four-year programme is to cost US$230 million. The Angolan government will contribute US$127 million for the implementation of projects; the World Bank will contribute US$33 million, a Trust Fund of donors to the Great Lakes region US$53 million, and other donors another US$17 million.

The programme is to be directly managed by the Institute for the Social Reintegration of Former Soldiers and the World Bank.

New facilities opened in Moxico Province

João Ernesto dos Santos ‘Liberdade’, governor of Moxico Province, opened new facilities on 4 April, as part of the celebrations of the second anniversary of the signing of the peace agreement between the government and Unita.

They included a new teacher training institute built from scratch, a sanatorium and a water analysis laboratory. The sanatorium has 27 beds, an x-ray department, a clinical analysis laboratory, a canteen, a mortuary and an administrative area.

Public lighting restored in Andulo, Bié Province

Bié provincial governor Amaro Taty inaugurated street lighting in the municipality of Andulo, 130 km from Kuito, in early April. He also officially handed over a set of generators to provide lighting in schools for night classes.

AmaroTaty said the work done, at a cost of US$201,000 to the government, was part of the programme to provide better basic services for the people and would shortly be extended to the other municipalities in the province.

Expedition to seek the giant sable antelope

An expedition to examine tracks of the giant sable antelope reportedly seen in the Kangandala National Park in Malanje Province is working to verify them, according to Cristóvão da Cunha, the provincial governor.

Speaking during a visit to Lucala, in Kwanza Norte Province, he said he had sent personnel from his local government to Kangandala to seek tangible data on the animal. The latest reports, he said, were the ‘clearest evidence’ that this rare species was still to be found on the edge of the national park. He expressed the hope that it would be found this time, though it was not the best time to look, owing to the heavy rains in the region. A television crew had been sent with the expedition.

The giant sable, the palanca negra gigante, a kind of antelope that exists only in Angola, had not been seen since the resumption of war after the elections in Angola.