Kuito hunger 'grows worse'

Aid flights to the town resumed earlier this week

By Justin Pearce in Luanda

Cases of malnutrition in the Angolan central highland town of Kuito are rapidly increasing, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

The nutritional situation is deteriorating at a very fast rate as people come in from the countryside

WFP spokeswoman Cristina Muller

Although aid flights to the town resumed earlier this week, the poor condition of the airport runway is hindering the relief effort.

At the same time, more and more people are arriving in the town, driven from their homes by Unita rebels and other armed groups.

More than 160,000 people currently depend on food aid in and around Kuito.

Malnourished children

World Food Programme spokeswoman Cristina Muller, who has just returned from the town, described the situation as very serious.

"The nutritional situation is deteriorating at a very fast rate as people come in from the countryside. The number of cases of malnourished children is on the rise on a daily basis," she said.

WFP: "The number of cases of malnourished children rises daily."

She added that the level of child malnutrition had reached a two-year high, with one out of three children suffering from tuberculosis or other respiratory diseases.

Those people who are able to remain on their farms have already eaten most of the food from the last harvest, and looting by armed groups has further diminished the food stocks.

All food supplies to Kuito have to come by air because the civil war makes road transport impossible.

Earlier this week, the WFP resumed aid flights to Kuito, which had been suspended after two incidents in which missiles were fired from the ground at WFP planes.

"We actually are only able to provide 65% of the needs in Kuito at the moment because of the state of the runway," Christina Muller said.

"So, in addition to the time that we were paralysed because of the attacks on us, we also are not able to fly sufficient food because the runway is in such bad condition."

Since Kuito airport is also used by military planes, only the government may carry out repairs.

Although work is under way, the World Food Programme believes that the progress being made on the runway is too slow.