Malanje - Fighting has forced hundreds of villagers to flee to the relative safety of Malanje in northern Angola, where aid agencies can already barely cope with the needs of more than 250 000 displaced people, local officials said on Monday.
At least 557 villagers have fled in recent weeks to the provincial capital, 500km east of Luanda, officials said, adding that the flow of displaced people was growing, with some going to Luquembo, south of Malanje, and Mussende to the southwest.
Fighting is still going on in the south, southwest and northwest of Malanje province, military sources said.
Rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) were dislodged from Malanje in a major government offensive in August 1999, ending a stranglehold that lasted more than a year.
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Malanje, one of the towns worst hit by 25 years of almost continuous civil war, was also surrounded by Unita rebels from 1992 to 1994.
Until a few years after independence from Portugal in 1975, Malanje was the centre of Angola's textile industry and grew cotton and rice. Today, the displaced people are crowded into camps and depend on international aid for survival.
Vieira Miguel, the provincial deputy governor, said the authorities wanted to launch a development rogramme after the government offensive, but "we can't resume farming with this insecurity. We are waiting for better days".
Roque Rebelo, a social worker in the province, said a strategy to produce food for the swollen population had failed.
Land was allotted around the city for farming, but "axes, for example, and seed were given to the peasants too late or were not enough to start to farm", he said.
The World Food Program (WFP) supplied nearly 14 000 tons of food between January and June this year to about 207 029 people in Malanje, according to the United Nations agency's figures.
Miguel said: "It's unprecedented support for Malanje."
The Angolan government has invested in other provinces less affected by fighting in Angola's civil war, which resumed in late 1998 after a 1994 peace agreement collapsed.
The road linking Malanje to the capital Luanda 500km to the west is impassable, but is unlikely to be repaired anytime soon, the deputy governor said. "The road most be repaired, but that does not depend on our will."
Bishop Luis Maria de Onraite of Malanje asked the government and rebel forces to call a ceasefire.
"The only way that can bring an end to the war is dialogue. A ceasefire before Christmas should be offered to the people who have been martyred and punished by the war up to now," he said on Monday.
"People are living in destitution. Only WFP and non-governmental organisations aid alleviates their lot." - Sapa-AFP
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