By Zoe Eisenstein
Mavinga, Angola - They are known as the "under-the-trees people".
They are the newest arrivals to Mavinga in south-east Angola and don't yet have the materials or the strength to build homes.
Rosalina Calopa arrived in this town in September after a treacherous 200km walk from Rivungu near the Zambian border. She now lives under a tree with her seven children, the only place they can escape the baking tropical sun.
"We don't have food, we don't have clothes, we don't have homes, and we're all without our husbands," she said.
"Because of the war, we were in hiding. My husband went one way, I went another. I don't know if he's alive."
Angola's 27-year civil war ended tentatively earlier this year after Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed and a ceasefire signed. More than one million people were killed in the conflict and millions more displaced.
Calopa hopes the future will be different. "First, we need food, clothes, seeds. After that, we can cultivate the land."
Angola has some of the most fertile soil in Africa but the war has left millions destitute and in need of food aid.
The government goes to the international community begging for aid funds while it is suspected of siphoning off much of its billions of dollars in oil revenue.
Calopa's group of around 100 made the four-day journey to Mavinga with their 'Soba', or traditional chief, Fulay Chingombe.
"Our living conditions are terrible. We eat mabok (fruit), we sell wood to buy a few other things to eat," said Chingombe, an elderly father of eight.
The town of Mavinga was the site of several battles between the government and rebel forces and one of the last Unita strongholds to fall to government control. Since then, Angolans displaced by the war have arrived there in their thousands.
About 50km away from Mavinga town, there are two quartering areas where 69 951 ex-UNITA fighters and their families are now living.
Mavinga's population depends almost exclusively on food distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP).
The UN agency says 113 508 people in Mavinga, including those in the quartering areas, were registered to receive food handouts in October compared with 64 832 for their first distribution in July.
Although the situation is desperate, NGOs say it has improved dramatically since the end of the war.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Field Coordinator Tristan Berphet said the situation had eased.
"The crisis is over. There was a huge problem of malnutrition, especially before WFP arrived and with the transport problems. But we really are still in an emergency situation even if it's not as bad," he said.
Across the road from the MSF compound, next to an area which has been closed off because of landmines, is Mavinga's hospital.
The director is Dr Jeronimo Mbayo, who was rebel leader Savimbi's personal physician for 30 years. Mbayo has been running the hospital since August but he is still waiting to be paid.
"The WFP feeds us (at least). Normally, a doctor has better working conditions," he said. Nurses working at Mavinga hospital also complain that the government has not paid them.
According to MSF, which supports the hospital, up to 600 out patients receive medical treatment each week. Forty percent of them have malaria, Africa's great killer.
Dr Christine Buol points to a shabby-looking operating theatre as she describes the situation.
"Conditions are difficult because we don't have light. We have to improvise," she said.
"It's very dusty and the landing strip is too close. It's very difficult to work with the noise... Now malaria will increase because of the rainy season. "
MSF has moved its Therapeutic Feeding Centre to a new site about a kilometre from central Mavinga because it feared that children who were playing could set off landmines - one of the war's many awful legacies.
Fadila Asloune, a nurse at the centre, said the situation had improved.
"Now when the people arrive they are really better and you don't see them in a bad state like three months ago. The distribution of food is the reason," she said.
Mavinga is in the province of Cuando Cubango and often described as "the land at the end of the earth" because of its harsh desert-like terrain and remoteness.
The WFP says the logistics of taking food to beneficiaries in this type of environment has been a serious challenge and that the onset of rains makes the future uncertain.
"Mavinga and probably 50 to 60 percent of Cuando Cubango is all sand and the main challenge for us is the roads where we can't use normal cars," said Antonio Reais, WFP base manager in Mavinga.
At least now they can get to places that were off limits during the war, bringing a ray of hope to Angola's war-weary population.