Angola’s central province of Huambo used to be the country’s breadbasket, but 18 months after the end of the country’s 27-year civil war the majority of its one million people still depend on foreign aid.
At one point Angola’s Portuguese colonial rulers considered moving the capital from Luanda to the city of Huambo, lured by the province’s climate and fertile soils.
But after four decades of colonial, and then civil, war, during which Huambo became the fiefdom of Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, its fields are peppered with landmines and aid agencies are one of its only sources of food.
”We’re ready to work the fields but there are no seeds,” the elderly Victor Sachipangue said as he and his son arrived to collect their monthly food ration from the camp run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Chiumbo, around 60 kilometres north of Huambo city.
After the ceasefire in April 2002 that ended the 27-year civil war between Unita and the army, the government of long-standing President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos promised to help the country’s three-million internally displaced people return to their homes. The refugees include many former Unita fighters from Huambo, one of the provinces worst affected by the bitter conflict, and peasants who fled the conflict and landmines for the slums of Luanda and Huambo city.
But the destitute of Huambo have been left wanting.
”So far, we’ve seen nothing,” complained Beatriz Ngove, who had walked the 30 kilometres to Chiumbo from her village.
In addition to food, the ICRC offers medical assistance to the 5 000 people living entirely in their care in the Chiumbo camp and anyone able to make it there from the surrounding countryside.
The Red Cross also provides clothes, household utensils, farm tools and seeds so the peasants — many of whom are now trying to make the long trek back to their villagers on foot — can try to start their lives again.
Like many other parts of Angola, Humabo also lacks basic infrastructure like roads, clean water and schools.
In Dondi, a little village around 50 kilometres from Huambo, evangelical missionaries are trying to reactivate classes in the ruins of the old school building.
”For the last six months we’ve been teaching 350 children and teenagers who had no schooling at all during the war,” explained Father Alfeu Kapamba. The 14 teachers received food from the missionary community but were working without pay, he said, adding that they had so far been unable to reslove that problem with the government.
But back in desperately poor Chiumbo, where even clothes are in short supply, the ICRC’s Lucas Riegger said there was still a room for a glimmer of hope.
”We see people wearing shoes now, which wasn’t the case three months ago,” he said. – AFP
