On the cold night of change - We are with you...
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We read the emerging development in Angola. It was reported that Jonas Savimbi might have been killed. The news brought jubilations to the streets of Angola. African Information Service Center wishes to congratulate the government and people of Angola over this news.

It is our hope that a country that has been embroiled in civil war for over 26 years with dashed hopes for peace and over 420 children dying everyday will finally find peace.

Two generations of children have known nothing but conflict resulting to Angola being officially ranked as the worst place in the world to be a child. Nearly one in three dies before their fifth birthday because of war and war-induced poverty. A potential economic powerhouse of Southern and Central Africa has been left decimated.

It could be remembered that in December 1998 Jonas Savimbi and his well-armed, 60 000-strong UNITA rebel army for the second time turned their back on a UN-backed peace process and returned to all-out war in a bid to take the country by force. Extensive weaponry was acquired in defiance of UN sanctions and under the effective shield of a 'see-no-evil, speak-no-evil' UN mission that was supposed to ensure the implementation of the 1994 Lusaka peace accord signed by the Government and UNITA. The rebels quickly re-captured territory and swept in from their rural zones of control towards the cities. Hundreds of thousands fled into the already crowded towns ahead of the UNITA assault. The hunger and human suffering of these people came on top of the already precarious position of the previous waves of internally displaced people. UNITA shot down two UN planes and murdered relief workers.

In March 1999 the UN pulled out of Angola saying there was "no peace to keep". Declared UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

By April 1999 hunger stalked the thousands of people increasingly cut off from international food aid in the central cities of Huambo, Malange and Kuito - shelled and besieged by UNITA, in a terrible repetition of their 1993 tactics. And by September 1999, the UN declared that two hundred people were dying a day from a war-induced "forgotten emergency".

During the first months of renewed fighting in Angola, nearly two million people fled their homes, half of these children. Many sought refuge in government-held, but besieged, towns where they were shelled daily. In Malange, one of the worst affected towns, malnutrition rates varied between 20 and 30 percent during 1999.

Aid agencies often faced a difficult task trying to reach civilians. Roads were insecure due to UNITA attacks on vehicles and landmines and UNITA attacks on aircraft, even UN planes, increased making at least half of the country inaccessible. At certain times, up to 70 percent of people in need of aid were unreachable.

Decades of fighting and the attendant population displacement have severely disrupted this nation. It is our hope that by the time the dust settles on the death of Savimbi, the International Community will rise to assist the people of Angola, in the realization that there is nothing to be gained in a divided and continuously warring Angola.

There will also be an urgent need to rehabilitate the UNITA rebels.

Signed:
Dele Olawole
Roy Walker
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Dr. Philips Ofume

AISC - www.afriaservice.com