/ 16 October 1999

THE UN TO STAY IN ANGOLA

THE Security Council voted on Friday to send a team of 30 civilians to maintain a United Nations presence in Angola, a country described as the most dangerous in Africa. On August 23, senior UN officials told the Council that Angolans knew “a level of despair that exists virtually nowhere else in the world.” Three million of Angola’s 11,5-million people are totally inaccessible, and many are so desperate for firewood to cook they use the wooden sticks marking landmine sites, they added. Under Resolution 1268, adopted unanimously on Friday, the UN Office in Angola will be set up for an initial period of six months. Meanwhile, vatican envoy Marcello Zago arrived in Luanda on Friday to deliver a message from Pope John Paul II urging the warring sides in Angola to resume their quest for peace. The pope visited Angola in June 1992 as the country prepared to hold its first elections in September.