Development & Aid, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines

ANGOLA: Where One Out of Three Children Die Before the Age of Five

Mario Dujisin

LISBON, Nov 25 1995 (IPS) - One out of three children in Angola die before the age of five, and one out of five do not reach their first birthday, according to a report by the Angolan Human Rights Association (AHRA) released here.

Life expectancy in Angola “is among the lowest in the world,” and the mortality rate “one of the highest,” states the document that was issued this week. And one quarter of Angola’s 11 million inhabitants are younger than six years old.

The AHRA blames that situation on civil war, “which for the past 20 years has devastated the country.

“Many of the country’s children live on the streets, consuming a low level of calories, protein, and fat, without access to basic healthcare.” A large number are orphans, while others “were abandoned due to economic reasons, or were simply separated from their families during the war.

“Street children survive by begging, prostitution or small theft,” while they “are victims of exploitation, as slave or dirt-cheap labour, and live totally outside the educational system,” the report states.

According to the United Nations, three wars, the first against the Portuguese colonial administration (1961-74) and two civil wars (1975-91 and 1992-94) cost some 1.1 million lives in Angola.

Nearly 90 percent of those deaths occurred during the second civil war, which broke out when the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) took up arms against the socialist government, refusing to recognise its victory at the polls in September 1992.

From late 1992 to November 1994, one third of the population was displaced, 200,000 children were orphaned and 300,000 people took refuge in neighbouring countries and Portugal.

An average of 94 children under five are killed by hunger, malaria, cholera, sleeping sickness, typhus, yellow fever and tuberculosis every day, according to the November report of the Portuguese non-governmental organisation International Medical Assistance.

And the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund points out that 24 percent of Angolan children are disabled or disfigured, and 95 percent have been exposed to shoot-outs, bombings and fires, which have left deep psychological damage.

Typical characteristics of Angolan children are fear of war, anxiety, panic, depression, insomnia, intolerance, disorientation, a generally sad personality and little interest in life.

 
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Development & Aid, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines

ANGOLA: Where One Out of Three Children Die Before the Age of Five

Mario Dujisin

LISBON, Nov 25 1995 (IPS) - One out of three children in Angola die before the age of five, and one out of five do not reach their first birthday, according to a report by the Angolan Human Rights Association (AHRA) released here.
(more…)

 
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