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 7 covering the period 12-19 February 1999
ANGOLA: The end of a decade of peacekeeping
The UN will wind up a decade of military presence in Angola next week when its peacekeeping mission withdraws, leaving no end in sight to a civil war which has raged sporadically since independence from Portugal in 1975. The 1,000-strong UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) is scheduled to cease operations when its mandate expires on Friday 26 February.
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that he saw no need for even a smaller UN political or military presence to remain in the country as proposed by the UN Security Council. Humanitarian aid agencies could remain, he said to "deal with humanitarian assistance, human rights and other matters related to the interests of the people". The BBC reported on Friday that diplomats still hoped that the Angolan government could be persuaded to agree to a plan which would "leave the door open" for a continued UN political and possibly military presence.
MONUA, which succeeded three UNAVEM peacekeeping missions and which once numbered 7,000 men, was mandated to monitor the 1994 Lusaka Protocol peace accords brokered by the UN. But the accords were shattered in December as the government and UNITA rebels returned to war. In his letter to Annan, dos Santos also said that the UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi should be declared a war criminal and demanded an international arrest warrant be issued for his capture.
Analysts and diplomats in the Angolan capital Luanda said the breakdown of the Lusaka Protocol resulted in part from Savimbi's failure to disarm his fighters or return territory under UNITA control to a government of national unity.
The war brings demining to a virtual halt
The withdrawal of peacekeepers and supervisors from key provincial towns, meanwhile, has brought to a virtual halt the UN Mine Action Programme in Angola - one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Bjorn Waleman, the UN's Demining Programme's deputy manager told IRIN this week that administrative and logistical support was no longer possible, but a new contingency plan had been devised with the Angolan government in a bid to keep the programme alive.
New mines being laid
As the general political and security situation continued to deterioriate, he said new mines were being laid, and more people were being maimed, wounded or killed daily by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs).
He said South Africa, Germany, France, The Netherlands and New Zealand which provided experts to supervise demining in Angola, had withdrawn their staff. They would return only once a ceasefire was adhered to and only if the authorities could guarantee the security of international staff.
The new contingency plan would provide for upgrading of the Central Mine Action Training School, help build up the government's own mine clearance institution, increase nationwide mine awareness with UNICEF support, maintain and upgrade the UN landmine mine data base, send trained demining experts to raise awareness in schools and refugee centres. It would also maintain support for international NGOs still operating in Angola.
The latest fighting
In fighting this week, the government-occupied city of Malanje sustained a daily barrage of heavy shelling by long-range artillery of the UNITA rebel movement claiming many lives and impeding humanitarian relief operations.
The UN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH) said it had not been possible to get accurate figures on the number of deaths and injuries because the situation made it difficult for those humanitarian relief staff still there to move around the city, some 400 km east of the capital Luanda.
"What we are experiencing in Malanje is a nightmare situation," UCAH spokesman Fernando Costa Freire told IRIN. "The shelling has prevented people gathering at meeting points to receive what relief is available." According to latest figures compiled by UCAH from government data, Malanje is now crammed with 104,850 internally displaced people who have fled fighting in the surrounding countryside - a figure higher than any other of Angola's besieged provincial capitals. Malanje is the capital of Malanje Province.
Since relief food was first provided on 28 January, a total of 82,000 people had been assisted, resulting in a drop in food prices in the only market still open.
WFP concerned about rising malnutrition
WFP warned this week that rising malnutrition amongst the more than half a million displaced persons in Angola were becoming a cause of extreme concern. Francesco Strippoli head of UCAH and WFP's representative in Angola said "the next few months are looking very grim. If fighting continues and intensifies we could be looking at a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe". WFP says that the cost of providing assistance has increased considerably because insecurity on the country's roads has meant that 80 to 90 per cent of aid can only be delivered by air. Government recaptures strategic northern city
The Angolan government said this week its forces were consolidating the recapture from UNITA of the northern Zaire Province capital, M'banza Congo. According to UCAH, the humanitarian community was still waiting to be able to return to the city to assess the situation. "There are reports, however, that the local hospital was ransacked and equipment looted or destroyed," it said in a report.
The recapture of M'banza Congo, a strategic city on the main road to coastal oil installations and the northern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was announced on national television by General Joao de Matos, chief of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) during a visit there on 13 February.
In reports carried by the official press this week, the government also announced the capture of Songo, a town 40 from Uige city in northern Angola on 9 February. The next day, in the northwest province of Lunda Norte, it announced the recaptured of Luo Diamond mine 48 hours after it had been seized by UNITA forces. The mine has an output worth an estimated US $800,000, according to government estimates. It said two unidentified South Africans working at Luo had been killed by retreating UNITA forces.
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe to provide military support to Angolan government?
Media sources quoted Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, on Friday as saying the Southern African Development Community (SADC) should send forces to Angola to support the government in its war against UNITA. Mugabe's intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been criticised at home and doubts are raised over Zimbabwe's military capacity to become involved in another conflict. Meanwhile, rebels in the DRC said on Friday that they shot down a Zimbabwean MiG plane in southeast DRC but a Zimbabwean diplomat contacted by IRIN on Friday was unable to confirm the incident.
Mozambique president in Zimbabwe for talks
Mozambican President Joachim Chissano was reported to be meeting with Mugabe in Zimbabwe on Thursday on the conflicts in DRC and Angola. Local media reported that Chissano has been asked by parts of the diplomatic community to become involved in the peace process. Chissano is the vice-chairman of SADC.
ZAMBIA: Chiluba denies backing UNITA
President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia has once again denied Angolan charges that Zambia provided arms to UNITA. In an address to the SADC Council of Ministers meeting in Lusaka last week, Chiluba repeated his suggestion that the UN and other international bodies investigate the Angolan claims. "We do not have the capacity nor the resources to prosecute a war with Angola", he was quoted as saying.
NAMIBIA-BOTSWANA: Hearings begin over border tensions
The first phase of hearings in the territorial dispute between Namibia and Botswana came to an end at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, yesterday. The dispute between the two countries concerns the boundary around the Kasikili/Sedudu Island in the Caprivi Strip area and the legal status of the island.
Earlier this week a Namibian Government spokesperson told IRIN both nations had agreed to submit their cases to the court after failing to resolve the issue through bilateral negotiations. Last week the Botswana government granted amnesty to 15 Namibians who had fled the Caprivi Strip after they had been accused of advocating secession for the region. UNHCR said that more than 2,400 Namibians had already crossed into Botswana from the Caprivi Strip. The second phase in the hearings with oral presentations by Botswana begins on Monday.
MOZAMBIQUE: WFP assists victims of drought and floods
WFP announced this week that it will provide Mozambique with US $2.7 million in new relief aid to assist victims of drought and floods. The relief aid, consisting mostly of maize and beans, is expected to help some 80,000 people cope until the next harvest in April. A WFP spokesperson told IRIN that until a few weeks ago a large part of Mozambique had been hit by drought. This had been followed by torrential rain which had resulted in large scale flooding. The spokesperson said that the situation would be monitored and further assistance would be provided if necessary.
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