A scorched earth campaign of war has resulted in thousands of Angolans dying of hunger, now a war of words has broken out between humanitarian agencies over the response to the crisis.
On Tuesday Medecins Sans Fronteires (MSF) released a statement in Luanda which lambasted the Angolan government and the United Nations for being “unacceptably slow to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of at least half a million Angolans”.
The MSF statement said: “The Angolan government not only played a large role in creating the current nutritional emergency, it has shown little urgency in responding to it. War tactics pursued by both Unita and the Angolan government during the conflict, including forced displacement, indiscriminate violence, and the burning of villages and fields, have left hundreds of thousands of Angolans in a precarious situation.
“Cut off from humanitarian assistance for years, these populations are now being left to fend for themselves when they have no crops, no homes, and no means of survival. While some food is being provided to families in the Unita quartering areas in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, the government response is close to non-existent for civilians in the former war zones. Slow visa and customs procedures in Angola have seriously blocked the work of aid agencies trying to assist these populations.”
The MSF statement also went on to criticise the UN’s Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “OCHA, despite private declarations that Angola is facing the worst humanitarian disaster in Africa today, has allowed political wrangling over the demobilisation process to take precedence over the urgent needs of the Angolan population,” MSF claimed.
The World Food Programme (WFP) also came in for criticism. “The WFP has been astoundingly slow to increase its operations, and has yet to implement desperately needed widescale food distribution programs for many of the newly accessible populations or in the quartering areas for demobilised Unita soldiers and their families. WFP has even drastically cut back rations for displaced persons assisted prior to the 4 April [ceasefire] agreement, leaving 335 000 people without needed aid,” MSF said.
The WFP, while not responding directly to the MSF statement, pointed out that it had been supplying NGOs with food to distribute in quartering areas and had this week begun distributing food in quartering areas itself.
WFP representative in Angola, Marcelo Spina, also pointed out that the therapeutic feeding centres run by MSF were being supplied with food by WFP.
Spina was at pains to stress that “we are not responding to MSF, [we are] merely stating what we are doing in Angola”. He said: “We have been feeding over the months and years, now an average of one million people every month. In light of this new situation, the ceasefire, the number is increasing very much. Last month we were feeding 900 000 people, this month one million, from next month until December the number [will be] 1,5-million people.
“We have new areas that we have accessed that were not reachable before, we’ve had 28 rapid assessments in these areas. That added at least 150 000 more people to our case load, we have also started feeding people in the Unita quartering areas, that’s an extra 170 000 people … in the near future refugees from neighbouring countries will start coming back to Angola, that [has] added up to half a million more people to feed.”
The WFP was attempting to stretch its resources. “I am not directing this at anyone, what I’m saying in general is that if anyone could say we are not working fast enough it is very poor judgment, we are working very hard and working beyond our limits to keep up with the huge increase in numbers [of people needing food aid]. For the past two weeks we have been working with many NGO’s providing them with food for the quartering areas, if anybody says we have not been distributing food in those areas its not true.
“Yesterday [Monday] we started to distribute food in those quartering areas ourselves, [previously] we’ve been giving food to all the organisations that have requested food. All those therapeutic nutritional centres that MSF has been running have been run with WFP food.”
OCHA meanwhile responded directly to the MSF statement, which UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Angola, Erick de Mul, described as disappointing and misleading.
De Mul said in the statement: “The MSF statement is wrong on many points and the accusation of indifference by the UN to the humanitarian crisis in Angola is blatantly incorrect.”
The UN had repeatedly drawn public attention to the crisis in the country and had constantly worked to increase the amount of support for humanitarian operations from the Angolan government and donors. “As part of on-going efforts to mobilise funds, three special alerts have been issued and regular meetings have been held with donors, informing them of all developments and priorities,” the OCHA statement said.
As soon as hostilities ceased, “the UN system conducted rapid inter-sectoral assessments in 28 areas where critical needs were suspected. Operations by agencies and NGOs were immediately launched in half of these areas and plans are underway for the remaining sites”.
With regard to MSF’s accusations about quartering areas, OCHA said access to family areas was denied to the UN by the Angolan government during the first military phase of quartering.
“As soon as access was allowed, the UN moved, within 24 hours, to begin assessments. Within a one week period, the UN assessed 25 family areas, identifying priorities for humanitarian assistance and clearing the way for UN operations,” OCHA said.
While De Mul said: “MSF has missed the key point at this crucial juncture. Events have evolved very quickly and the government is still gearing up to deal with the situation, as is the international community, which has not yet fully responded to the funding requests made by UN agencies and NGOs.
“This is the real issue. The UN does not have, at present, sufficient resources to launch programmes, including general food distributions, to meet all of the needs. We are forced to target the most vulnerable and even then, we are not able to reach everyone in critical distress.”
De Mul also pointed out that “MSF has failed to share information with partners, they do not sufficiently coordinate their assessments with partners”. He alleged that MSF “have discharged some children from feeding centres without making sufficient arrangements for the future of the children and their families and they do not engage in regular discussions about the food pipeline”.
While MSF was “quick to criticise” they should instead “do more to coordinate with partners at both the provincial and national level”.
The UN recognised the work MSF was doing in Angola and noted “that many other NGOs and UN agencies are making important contributions to saving lives”.
De Mul concluded: “We look forward to [continuing] our cooperation with MSF. There is a lot to do in this country and we need to concentrate on moving forward. This is the challenge and we in the UN are ready.” – Irin