More than 5,000 IDPs arrive in Luena

Fleeing fighting in the Angolan countryside, more than 5,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived in the eastern city of Luena in January, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report. The vast majority of the IDPs were woman, children and the elderly. "The number of internally displaced populations arriving in Luena has continued to increase in recent months as a result of [military] operations in Moxico and other provinces," OCHA said. "The total number of confirmed IDPs in the provincial capital has reached more than 89,000." OCHA added that according to the Moxico provincial government, an estimated 60,000 new IDPs may arrive in Luena between February and June. Moxico has been the scene of a long-running government military offensive against UNITA rebels. The authorities have repeatedly said that UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi is trapped in the remote province that borders Zambia. According to OCHA the new arrivals were in a "critical condition", with large numbers of children being both "severely" and "moderately" malnourished. The UN office said that therapeutic and supplementary centres in the city had exceeded maximum capacity, with the nutritional status of the new IDPs reaching "emergency levels". The situation report said humanitarian partners were operating at full capacity and did not have "sufficient resources" to respond to the growing needs of the new IDPs. It added that the delivery of essential food and non-food items were hampered by the poor condition of the Luena airstrip and that "during the upcoming repair period, humanitarian flights will be reduced from five to three per day". The update noted that in recent months most new arrivals had settled at the Mauchimbo IDPs camp, about 12 km outside Luena, beyond the government's security checkpoint. It added that although the camp had capacity for 7,000 people there were more than 8,000 currently living at the site. "Approximately 80 percent of the population at Mauchimbo does not have access to adequate shelter or essential non-food items, including clothing, kitchen kits and blankets," said OCHA. OCHA added that "persistent" insecurity and "mine infestation" in areas surrounding Luena continued to limit opportunities for the construction of new IDP camps, resettlement sites and access to agricultural land. Meanwhile, the European Commission said in a statement on Monday that US $7 million would be channelled to Angola through its Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). It said that "key objectives" were to improve health conditions of vulnerable populations and to ensure access, coordination and the supply of goods to humanitarian operations. "The donor community and the European Commission requests warring parties to create conditions for the establishment of humanitarian corridors in areas they control ... Without real progress being made on this specific aspect, aid agencies and NGOs operating on the country will not be able to target their assistance more efficiently," said the statement. The statement added that "although there were some positive expectations for 2001, overall the humanitarian situation has deteriorated".