The plight of former child soldiers and war-affected children in Angola is beginning to ease as they slowly reintegrate back into their communities, but new threats such as child trafficking and HIV/AIDS are emerging, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. A post-war child protection strategy had shown "significant results", Abubacar Sultan, UNICEF's head of child protection, told IRIN. Around 3,500 children had been reunited with their families, and 3,480, including former child soldiers, were involved in reintegration programmes such as back-to-school schemes, micro-enterprise programmes for older adolescents, or child-friendly centres where they could socialise and discuss issues.

According to reports, on 30 March the Luanda Provincial Tribunal sentenced Felisberto de Graça Campos, director and editor of the weekly magazine Semanario Angolense, to 45 days in prison or a fine of US$1,200 for a series of articles published in 2003 that detailed the fortunes of the 59 richest Angolans, including prominent government officials. Mr Campos's sentence follows defamation charges filed against him by the defence minister, General Kundy Payama, who was included in the list of reputed millionaires. The list included politicians, economists, senior military officials, ministers and members of parliament.

Angolans will have an extra reason to celebrate national youth day on 14 April, when young people can start using the first of three new youth centres. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its partners, which include provincial governors and the Catholic church, will open its first centre in the eastern Moxico province on Wednesday and Benguela in the west on Friday. A centre in the central Huambo province is expected to be operational later this month.

On 30 March 2004, the Luanda Provincial Tribunal sentenced Felisberto de Graça Campos, director and editor of the weekly magazine "Semanario Angolense", to 45 days in prison or a fine of US$1,200 for a series of articles published in 2003 that detailed the fortunes of prominent government officials. Campos's sentence follows defamation charges filed against him by the defence minister, General Kundy Payama, who was included in a list of 59 people believed to be millionaires. The list included politicians, economists, senior military officials, ministers and members of parliament.

The guns in Angola may have fallen silent, but the broad consensus on the streets of this battered country is that two years of peace have done little to better the lives of ordinary citizens. Sunday marked the second anniversary of the signing of the peace accord between the ruling MPLA and its arch-foe, UNITA, which brought to an end one of Africa's longest and bloodiest civil conflicts.

The aim of the 'Campaign for a Democratic Angola' - joining the hands of civil society and opposition - is to form a common front to push the government to improve democracy in Angola and to call on its leaders to announce a date for national elections. The organisers will launch the campaign in four of the country's 18 provinces in its first month (March) alone - Luanda, Cabinda, Huambo and Lunda-Sul. The campaign will be launched in up to a further four provinces between April and June 2004 and the ultimate aim is to make it nationwide. Organisers will hold a conference in April during which they plan to draw up a concrete agenda for the campaign's future activities. The hope is that pressure from the campaign will force the government to implement significant changes in Angola but organisers are also warning the country's leaders that they will be the ones left behind if they do not start to move quickly.

The ceasefire agreed between the Angolan government and UNITA in 2002 ended 27 years of civil war and provided the momentum for millions of internally displaced people (IDPs) to return home. More than four million people were displaced before the ceasefire. In early 2004, 450,000 of them were still waiting to go back to their homes, while around 400,000 were expected to settle permanently in their current place of residence. The majority of those IDPs who were able to return have faced a lack of basic services and food insecurity, as well as a widespread threat of land mines.

Ibis is a Danish NGO with a long history of working in Angola going back to pre-independence support for the liberation struggle. The Ibis programme in Angola is clustered around two major areas, Organisational Development of Civil Society and Education for Change. At the moment, we are looking at two positions to be filled: Civil Society Programme and Senior Programme Manager/Consultant.

Angola is to sign a trial deal with the International Monetary Fund, paving the way for loans to rebuild the war-shattered country, officials say. Angola has promised to end fuel, electricity and water subsidies by the year's end as part of the agreement.

Angola's ruling MPLA party has laid out 14 tasks it must complete before the country can hold its first national elections since 1992 - a move observers say makes a ballot before 2006 unlikely. Approving a new constitution, passing a new electoral register law and creating an electoral council would be possible by the second half of 2005, the MPLA's information secretary, Kwata Kanawa, told a press conference last Thursday.

Civil society and opposition parties on Tuesday launched a united campaign to improve democracy in Angola, two years after the end of its decades-long civil war. The 'Campaign for a Democratic Angola', to be launched in a total of four provinces this month, will see around 30 organisations combine their efforts to push for change and ultimately improve the lives of the Angolan people.

Angolan Social Welfare minister, Joao Baptista Kussumua, this week analysed with representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva the situation facing Angolan refugees, within the framework of the programme of repatriation of nationals living in foreign countries. "The fact that a high number of fellow countrymen have returned and that about a million are still abroad, presses the Government into convincing the United Nations on the best format to reintegrate the Angolans returning home, now that the war is over," he said.

A deadly fire in a satellite town of the Angolan capital has shown the woefully inadequate state of hospitals in a country still struggling to get back on its feet two years after the end of a brutal civil war. The accident in late February happened when a truck carrying barrels of petrol caught fire in the town of Viana, killing 15 people immediately and injuring more than 80. The wounded were admitted to nearby Neves Bendinha Hospital, where staff did their best to treat them for third-degree burns in under-equipped facilities. As patients lay screaming in corridors and overcrowded wards, many on plastic mattresses on the floor, and as the stench of burnt flesh filled the building, hospital director Dr. Valdemiro Diogo said resources were desperately over-stretched.

The Angolan government on Tuesday pledged to take steps to slash the appalling child mortality rate by half within the next four years. Almost three decades of civil conflict have given Angola the world's third-worst rate of child death, with one in four likely to die before they reach their fifth birthday, according to figures from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

An Angolan opposition party on Tuesday said a demonstration to protest alleged government corruption went ahead "successfully" despite police "intimidation". According to the protest organisers, police had allegedly harassed protesters outside the United States embassy in the capital, Luanda, the venue of the protest.

Angola risks being ravaged by deadly sleeping sickness as hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people return home in peacetime, spreading the parasite that causes the disease, Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned. The global medical-relief organisation said the scourge -- officially known as Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) – was in danger of making a lethal comeback after being almost eradicated before Angola’s devastating 27-year civil war, which ended almost two years ago.

Rights activists in Angola have accused the authorities of riding roughshod over civil liberties after demonstrators this week were prevented from staging a protest against alleged government graft. According to the protest organisers, police on Tuesday cordoned off access to the venue for the demonstration, a central square in the capital, Luanda.

The Angolan Government and the UNHCR this month started discussions meant to outline the repatriation program of Angolan refugees in 2004, particularly those living in sheltering camps. The UNHCR official, Matthew Brook said there might soon occur a meeting gathering all interveners of the repatriation process, which will analyse the program in an open way.

The Angolan government is seeking a mediator to resolve the separatist crisis in the enclave of Cabinda, according to news reports. Interior Minister Osvaldo Serra van Dunem announced on Wednesday that the government wanted a "real and suitable mediator to commence a transparent dialogue" about the future of the oil-rich province.

Civil rights activists in Angola's Cabinda province on Tuesday complained of ongoing harassment by the authorities in the troubled oil-rich northern enclave. Over the weekend some 1,500 activists were prevented from launching an organisation that would call for a peaceful solution to ongoing hostilities in the region and monitor alleged human rights abuses.