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Angola

Angola: Aid stepped up for displaced persons in Caala

From ICRC NEWS 11
Following a recent ICRC survey of nutritional needs, aid for displaced persons housed in five centres at Caala, seven kilometres from Huambo, was increased last week. Some 2,800 displaced families (12,700 persons), to whom half rations had been distributed every month since July 1999, are now receiving whole rations consisting of maize, dried beans, oil and salt. Food aid for the displaced at Caala will be maintained until they are able to return home. However, the food and agricultural programme launched in July 1999 for 61,341 displaced and resident families on the outskirts of Huambo is currently under review.

Meanwhile, a programme to improve hygiene by constructing latrines in the centres was suspended when the local authorities announced plans to move the entire displaced population to a single new camp.

The ICRC will soon open a health-care centre at Caala in cooperation with the provincial section of the Angolan Red Cross. This will be the fifth such National Society facility to receive assistance from the ICRC (there are already two in Uige and two in Kuito). Four other health-care centres near Huambo have been receiving equipment and medical supplies from the ICRC since May 1999.

Further information: Juan Martinez, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 22 81