Angola is a country in transition. "Refugees are moving, the displaced are moving and so are ex-combatants," says Kallu Kalumiya of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In June this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began one of its biggest repatriation exercises, to bring home nearly half a million Angolans scattered throughout neighbouring countries.

Angola's 27-year civil war has left the country in "smouldering ruin," and the "advent of peace may fan the spread" of HIV in the country, Reuters/Boston Globe reports. Some health experts believe that the war may have kept HIV/AIDS contained to small regions of the country because civilian movement was prohibited in much of the nation. However, now that the fighting has subsided, people in the country are able to travel.

The assumption that once the civil war in Angola ended democracy would start up was always naive. Instead the ruling MPLA party has asserted itself as the dominant political force, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has hovered on his apparent decision to leave his post, and the erstwhile rebel movement Unita is still licking its wounds. It has only been in the violence-ridden enclave of Cabinda, ironically, that there have been signs of an effective democratic movement beginning, says a report from Southscan.

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Amnesty International (AI) on the 13th of November 2003 called for a moratorium on forced evictions in Angola, claiming that over 5,000 people had been forcibly removed from their homes in three mass evictions between 2001 and 2003.

The widespread availability of small arms among Angolan civilians could pose a threat to holding peaceful national elections, tentatively scheduled for 2005, a senior opposition UNITA official said on Tuesday.

Angola made one of its biggest peacetime strides on Monday as education experts set the wheels in motion to train 29,000 new teachers, with the aim of getting one million children back into the classroom.

The Eduardo dos Santos Foundation (FESA) handed over on Wednesday to Uije provincial government about four tonnes of various medicines and other first aid items.

While recognising the progress Angola has made since the end of the civil war last year, the European Union (EU) has called for an improvement in transparency in public sector expenditure.

A recent spate of harassment at a refugee camp near the Angolan capital has prompted the UN refugee agency to appeal for the authorities to guarantee the safety of refugees and aid workers there. Congolese refugees at Sungui camp in Bengo province, 72 km north of Luanda, have allegedly been harassed over the last three months. In the latest incident this week, armed uniformed men entered the premises at night, threatened a refugee and stole some equipment from a container belonging to UNHCR’s partner INTERSOS, an Italian non-governmental organisation in charge of constructing houses and schools.

Successive attempts over the past 27 years to end a secessionist conflict in Angola's Cabinda enclave are yet to bear fruit. However, a recent visit to the Angolan capital, Luanda, by the founder of the main rebel group has been seen as evidence that peace may finally reach the troubled province.

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Due to the onset of the rainy season, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plans to step up its voluntary repatriation programme for Angolan refugees living in neighbouring countries. The UN refugee agency this week said some 15,000 Angolans had returned from Zambia, mainly from Meheba camp near the border with Angola.

Angola's once flourishing coffee industry is beginning to show signs of recovery after decades of civil war that virtually destroyed production. Until 1975 Angola was the 4th largest coffee producer in the world. Today its coffee output barely satisfies local needs.

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About 131 children died in the paediatric hospital of Ndalatando in northern Kwanza-Norte province over the first six months of this year due to various diseases. This was said by the hospital clinic director, Celestino Teixeira, who added that 65 died from malaria, 35 from respiratory infections and acute diarrhoeas while another 30 died of other diseases.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Angola on Wednesday called for further support from donors for its health and education programmes, warning that the critical shortage of funds was seriously hampering its operations. "Now, more than at any time since independence, Angola possesses enormous potential for recovery and prosperity. But with funding for programmes in health and education floundering at below 10 percent, UNICEF warns that it is fighting to meet the enormous demand created in post-war Angola," the agency said in a statement.

A key suspect in a French corruption case has been confirmed as Luanda's ambassador to Unesco, securing him an Angolan diplomatic passport and immunity from prosecution. The appointment allows the suspect, Pierre Falcone, who is at the centre of an arms trafficking scandal, to travel freely despite a judicial ban on leaving France. The foreign ministry said it was powerless to stop the "regrettable" appointment.

At least 25,000 Angolan refugees have been returned to their home country since the start of the voluntary repatriation programme run by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The returns have been organised by UNHCR in cooperation with the governments of Angola and countries of asylum.

Médicins Sans Frontièrs (MSF) on Wednesday called for greater assistance to refugees returning to Angola, saying that many had resettled in areas lacking basic services.