U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa
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Southern Africa: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-Up 9 covering the period 24-31 Dec 1998
ANGOLA: Situation deteriorates following UN plane crash in central highlands
A Hercules C-130 transport aircraft carrying 10 UN observers and a crew of four crashed in central Angola on Saturday. Within hours, radio signals were received from the site near the village of Boas Aguas some 30 km from Huambo where the aircraft was reportedly intact raising hopes that there might be survivors.
But MONUA spokesman, Hamadoun Toure told IRIN that it had not been possible to send a search and rescue team to the area because the UN had not received authorisation to enter the area where its call for a 48-hour ceasefire went unheeded. By Wednesday, the delay prompted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to call on Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the opposition UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi to give the necessary authorisation and provide any assistance required.
Second city shelled
But as the appeals were delivered, Huambo, Angola's second-largest city, came under intense shelling from UNITA forces. The Angolan government, in a radio broadcast monitored by the BBC, blamed UNITA for the shelling and for shooting down the aircraft, which was taking MONUA officials from Huambo to Saurimo in northeast Angola.
Analysts said that even if the fighting abated, the search and rescue mission would be made difficult by heavy rains and the presence of landmines in the crash zone.
The fighting around the strategic towns of Huambo and Kuito, 120 km to the northeast, in recent weeks has been the heaviest in four years, shattering the UN-brokered 1994 Lusaka Protocol peace accord and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and desert their crops.
The latest humanitarian figures
In its latest situation report, UCAH said that the number of people seeking shelter in Kuito had jumped from 10,000 at the beginning of the month to 40,000 on New Year's eve. In Huambo, which accommodated 7,000 internally displaced people at the beginning of the month, the number of people crammed into the city has risen to 80,000, it said.
"The ongoing warfare is provoking general instability and growing tension throughout Angola," UCAH said. "This has led to an in increase in the displacement of civilian population all over the country." It cited an "alarming" increase of displaced people in Angola from 350,000 in early December to nearly 470,000 indicating that "the humanitarian situation is reaching a catastrophic level. Not only IDP's are seriously affected, but their host communities are also vulnerable."
Aid lifelines cut
With most roads too dangerous to travel, and Kuito airport closed for the past two weeks because of heavy bombardments, costly humanitarian airlifts were used to dispatch aid to Huambo. However, that airport too was now closed following the crash of the UN plane on Saturday and the latest shelling. Elsewhere in the country, UCAH also reported a deteriorating situation in Benguela province, where people were fleeing towards the town of Balombo, while in Bengo province, people had been fleeing to the town of Caxito from Kuanza Norte province. In Malange, displaced children were suffering from serious food shortages.
Stocks diminishing
In all areas where fighting was reported, humanitarian stocks were diminishing. "The existing humanitarian food and non-food stocks are being swiftly exhausted," the report said. "A quick infusion of these items as well as medical supplies, is essential before mid-January 1999, when stocks are expected to be depleted."
Situation drastic
As the year drew to a close, UCAH said the humanitarian situation in Angola "has drastically worsened with the tension felt everywhere, especially among the most vulnerable. In particular, children are the innocent targets of the deteriorating situation, and many of them have been separated from their families fleeing military clashes. They are in need of urgent medical help and immediate nutritional assistance."
UNHCR concerned
A UNHCR spokesman told IRIN contingency plans were being made should there be an exodus of refugees from Angola into neighbouring Zambia.
NAMIBIA-BOTSWANA: More flee Caprivi Strip
The number of Namibians fleeing secessionist tensions in the Caprivi Strip to Botswana increased steadily during the week prompting UNCHR to conduct fresh interviews with people claiming harassment and intimidation by the Namibian security forces in the area.
A Botswana government spokesman told IRIN that the number of asylum seekers had risen from 1,200 on 15 December to 1,763 this week.
"We had expected their number to stabilise at around 1,500, but this is not the case and there has been a steady increase," the spokesman said. "We are not enthusiastic about this, but we are cooperating with all concerned under current international codes on asylum to give them shelter and process their applications. They have a perception, right or wrong, that they are being persecuted."
UNHCR said it had dispatched an official to Botswana to interview the latest arrivals and assess the problem. The refugees include an additional 1,000 San bushmen who have not formally sought asylum. Those who have crossed the border since late October include the former leader of Namibia's opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), Mishake Muyongo, Senator Francis Sizimbo, Caprivi Strip governor, John Mabuku, and a traditional leader, Boniface Mamila.
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