Angola has the world's fifth highest child death rate in the world, with 118 deaths out of every 1 000 babies born, a 2002 report from the United Nations, released last Friday in Luanda, says.

Three Million US dollars will be granted by the French government in the months of March and April, to support demining programmes and the resettlement of displaced people in Angola.

The GOAL Country Director is responsible for the management and ongoing development/expansion of GOAL's work in the country. They are responsible for ensuring that GOAL's work contributes effectively and efficiently towards meeting the short, medium and long term needs of the poorest of the poor.

There is something highly symbolic about the way Arthur Chindandala, who lives in a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP) earns his living. He beats large shiny bowls out of recycled World Food Programme oil canisters, which he then sells for 25 kwanzas (about 30p) each. And he shapes them on an anvil made out of an upturned shell case. It's not exactly swords into ploughshares, but it's the modern-day equivalent. And it illustrates two great truths about Africa: the terrible toll war has taken on the continent and the spirit of vitality and inventiveness of Africans in their determination to forge new life from the ashes of battle.

Angola's remaining 1,500 troops backing President Denis Sassou-Nguesso in the Republic of Congo (ROC) began to pull out on Monday, thereby ending a five-year presence in the country, according to ROC Deputy Defence Minister Yvon Ndolou.

In mid-January 2003, Radio Netherlands will be releasing a CDossierTM on Angola, looking at the issues confronting the country in the wake of over a quarter of a century of civil war. It is entitled "Angola: Picking up the Pieces" and contains web, audio and video features with numerous personal testimonies. Among the issues covered are: the origins of the war, human rights abuses, the lasting legacy of landmines, family re-unification and the informal sector. For a full listing, check the web site: http://www.rnw.nl/humanrights/html/angola.html. The CDossierTM is available free of charge as a reference source to academic institutions and non-governmental organisations. The URL for the order form is: www.rnw.nl/cdossier

Human rights activists in Angola have released details of widespread allegations of human rights abuses in the northern enclave of Cabinda, where the Angolan government recently renewed its military campaign against separatist rebels in the oil-rich territory.

Oxfam, the National Malaria Control Program and local and international partners are implementing a pilot program in the four quartering zones and one newly displaced area in Humabo. The pilot project aims to build partner capacity, build Oxfam public health team capacity, identify mechanisms and strategies for integration of malaria control into Oxfam GB's public health program and provide, through operational research, an evidence based approach for advocating that the National Malaria Control Program replace re-treatable bed nets with long lasting ones.

Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed an agreement on Monday for the voluntary repatriation of 193,000 Angolan refugees in the Congo, a UNHCR official said.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a significant role SC UK's Programme in Angola. SC UK has worked closely with the MOH at provincial and municipal level in health since 1993. This involvement was interrupted at the beginning of 2001 and SC UK is looking to re-engage in both urban and rural settings in Huambo province, with plans to move from an emergency health programme towards a more development based programme over the next two years.

Sleeping sickness affects 100,000 people in Angola, the Director of the country's Institute for the Eradication of Trypanosomiasis, Teofilo Josenando has revealed.

When Angola's long civil war ended this year, critics of the government hoped that peace would begin to change a nation considered one of the world's most corrupt. So far, say many of those critics, the encouraging signs are few.

The first wave of 170,000 Angolan refugees are set to return home next year following a deal between the governments of Angola, Namibia and Zambia.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), the oil giant ChevronTexaco Corporation, and the Angolan government have signed an agreement to form a public-private partnership to support small business development in Angola.

In Angola, the former rebel movement Unita has reacted angrily to a United Nations report accusing it of retaining unknown quantities of weapons and illicit diamonds. During the final years of the civil war in Angola, Unita relied on diamond sales to fund its military activities.

A health services rehabilitation project in the war-ravaged Uige Province of Angola has received financing. Uige is one of the parts of Angola that has suffered most during the war with most of its infrastructure destroyed.

Malnutrition rates in Angola have declined, but conditions in the war-ravaged country remain extremely poor, Médecins Sans Frontières said this week. The medical relief agency reported that malnutrition, crude mortality rates, lack of access to health care and food insecurity all remained unacceptably high.

Victims of the tactics of two armed forces, Angola's four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) face a future as uncertain as their past. Throughout 2001 and the first quarter of 2002, UN figures indicate that the number of new IDPs in Angola fluctuated between 20,000 and 50,000 each month, the number rising to over 60,000 in September 2001 owing to a massive movement of people following UNITA rebel attacks in the north of Bengo province.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) will adopt new models of assistance to Angola in 2003 and cancel emergency aid and funding. The information was released recently by Ocha coordinator, Erick De Mull, alongside the "conference on international emergency aid put to test" held in Luanda.

Hundreds of millions of pounds supposedly being paid by western oil companies to the government of Angola have been discovered going into secret offshore accounts in Jersey. The Lloyds TSB offshore accounts in the name of the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, include cash payments by the companies to the government in return for exploration permits in the booming Angolan deep water oil fields.