AN international aid group said Friday that up to half a million Angolans face starvation in one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises in a decade.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, appealed for an international relief effort to help the 300 000 to 500 000 civilians who are at risk in the aftermath of almost three decades of civil war.
April’s cease-fire has opened up areas previously inaccessible to aid groups, which are all over-stretched, making the humanitarian situation critical, said the organization’s head of mission in Angola, Erwin Van der Borght.
”The government has the resources but so far has done very little,” he said. ”Past experience has shown that is it not very interested in its people.”
The group blamed both the UNITA rebel group and the Angolan army for causing the war’s humanitarian crisis by burning villages and forcing residents to flee.
Angola’s government and UNITA agreed last month to stop fighting and negotiate a peace settlement.
The United Nations estimates the civil war, which began after the southwest African country gained independence from Portugal in 1975, has driven 4 million people – about a third of the population – from their homes. ? Sapa-AP