Angola: IDP assistance programme progress

UNHCR's assistance programme for internally displaced people in Angola has been making steady progress. UNHCR is rehabilitating health services in Uige and Zaïre provinces, where some 222,000 internally displaced and returnees are mingled with the local population, often in squalid conditions. Due to the ongoing war, health services have been practically non-existent in these areas for years. UNHCR is working with NGOs and other agencies to place medical personnel in Mbanza Congo (Zaïre province), Maquela Do Zombo (Uige) and Uige city to build up basic medical services. Both internally displaced persons and the local population will benefit from the new services.

In Viana (Luanda province), a camp called "Irmaos Corragem" has been set up 14 km from the town centre to receive IDPs who had previously been living in transit centres. Three hundred families are already living at the site and an additional 600 will be transferred soon by UNHCR and the government. UNHCR's assistance programme is aimed at alleviating the terrible conditions of some 300,000 internally displaced people in three northern provinces of Angola, while helping local communities cope with their presence.