UNHCR appeals for US$ 8.4 million for Angola programme

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today issued an appeal for US$ 8.4 million for its emergency assistance programme for 300,000 people forced from their homes by civil strife in three provinces in Angola.

UNHCR sent an assessment mission to Uige, Zaire and Luanda in March and has since deployed a 12-member emergency team to begin a full-scale relief programme for the displaced people there.

Widespread conflict has engulfed Angola since a peace agreement hammered out in Lusaka fell apart in mid-1998. By the end of 1999, some 3.7 million Angolans were reported to be in need of assistance. Around 1.5 million of them were internally displaced in disease-ridden camps with little food. Conditions in the camps were described as some of the most appalling in the world.

Following consultations among UN agencies, UNHCR will principally operate in the three provinces where refugees from the previous conflict had returned. The amount appealed will cover life-saving activities for the first six months of the operation, including provision of basic health and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter and household materials.

Priority will be given to providing basic health and nutrition (US$ 815,000), water and sanitation (US$ 710,040), shelter (US$ 411,875), essential household materials (US$ 691,000), transport and logistics (US$ 1.6 million).

UNHCR's programme will gradually shift to more long-term activities, such as strengthening local capacity-building, education, training and some income-generating project