At least 500 people have died of famine in the last four months in camps in Angola holding members of the former Unita rebel group, their leader said on Thursday.
”The number of deaths is getting greater and greater,” said Paulo Lukamba. ”Overall, it’s more than 500 since the camps started.”
Some 84 000 ex-rebels and 300 000 family members have been gradually mustered in 35 camps since a ceasefire last April between the government and rebel forces in Angola.
Lukamba said Unita (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) had received guarantees that they would have a reasonable existence in the camps.
The official said he was concerned about the current state of affairs in the camps, warning that it represented a grave danger to the peace process in the west African country, shattered by 27 years of civil war.
”The government has made an effort whose value we acknowledge,” he said. ”But the effort is far from meeting the basic needs of our soldiers and their families.”
Unita was attempting to mobilise aid donors to help the inmates, he said. ”Nobody should die in the name of peace any more,” Lukamba said.
Demobilisation of the ex-rebels housed in the regroupment camps was scheduled to begin this week, according to officials of a joint committee of army and Unita representatives.
As part of the demobilisation process, around 5 000 former rebels will be integrated into the Angolan armed forces, and the remaining 79 000 will be given professional training to enable them to join civilian life.
After the April 4 ceasefire, the Angolan government set up a national office for reconstruction aimed at providing livelihoods for most of the former rebels by giving them jobs rebuilding the southern African country’s battered infrastructure.
Angola’s civil war — Africa’s longest armed conflict — left at least half a million people dead and forced some four million civilians to flee their homes and seek refuge either abroad or elsewhere in the country. – Sapa-AFP