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A cease fire in April between the government and rebels has ended, for now, Angola's 25-year civil war, which has caused tremendous suffering for millions of people and has destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, productivity and environment. Only now, with the ceasefire in place, have CARE and other organizations been able to begin fully assessing the humanitarian crisis, which includes severe food shortages; veteran CARE staffers say conditions here are among the worst they've ever seen. Approximately 1.5 million Angolans need immediate food assistance. Efforts to help them are proceeding, but slowly, owing in large part to bad roads, a profusion of landmines and a large, mobile population in need.
CARE's Response
We've focused much of our efforts in the Kuito area of Bié province, where we're improving food security for internally displaced persons (IDPs) through emergency food relief and a longer-term agriculture project.
CARE is working with several partners, including the World Food Programme, to distribute monthly food rations to more than 113,000 displaced persons in camps around the city. The ration includes maize, beans, vegetable oil and iodized salt. We're working closely with the community leadership to maintain effective and timely distributions.
| Suffering hunger and other privations after years of civil war, these Angolans register to get emergency relief. (© 2001 Alan Gignoux 2001/CARE) |
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We're also promoting increased agricultural production through a project that reaches approximately 15,000 displaced families in the camps. During the past two years, CARE staff have been working with these families to help them farm land in the area. These families arrived with very few personal belongings. They were given basic household items as well as seeds and tools to grow crops to supplement emergency food distributions. CARE has overseen the distribution of seeds that include maize, beans, tomatoes, cabbage, onion, groundnuts, sesame and soy. We've also worked closely with government officials to find land for farming that is fertile, close to the city and free of landmines.
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