1 SOCIAL Angola Aug 14 
(with pictures) 
A RAVAGED LAND 
By Natalie Walker, PA Features in Angola 
Young Eurico sits emotionless on a tyre as he recalls the day his left leg was blown off by a landmine. 
Sitting in an Orthopaedic Centre in Huambo – one of the areas worst hit by the civil war which raged in this country for 27 years – he slowly and calmly talks about the day his life changed. 
The 10-year-old was playing in a field near his home just two months ago when he discovered a landmine. He has now learnt that there are 13 million landmines in his country – one for every member of the population. 
Coming from a rural, lower-class family he says he had no idea about the dangers of landmines and recalls how he and six friends started playing with a rocket-propelled grenade. 
Within minutes, the grenade exploded. All of his friends, including his eight-year-old cousin Joao, were killed instantly. 
Eurico was left fighting for life with his leg hanging off. Luckily one of his uncles heard the explosion and found him, lying in a huge pool of blood, in time to save his life. 
Eurico continues: "My uncle took me to a nearby hospital and I remember being in a lot of pain and was not able to move. 
"The last thing I remember was begging the doctors not to take off my leg. But when I woke up I looked down it was gone. I felt sick."   
Two days ago the youngster was fitted with an artificial metal leg and is only starting to learn to walk again. But for him, the biggest loss is knowing he will never be able to play football again. 
"My life has changed. Some people I meet laugh at me or call me names and I don't like being different. The pain I can go on with, but I don't like being laughed at."   
Sadly Eurico is not alone. Already this year 25 people of all ages have been killed and 40 badly injured by landmines just in Huambo Province. The mines are a deadly and long-lasting reminder of the bloody civil war which ended last year. 
Relief agencies in the area including the UK's Halo Trust, which was brought to the world's attention when the late Princess Diana visited one of its projects in Angola shortly before her death, say more deaths will occur before the end of the year. 
Although roads across the country are being de-mined daily, officials say it could take more than 10 years to make all major and most secondary roads mine-free. 
In the meantime, thousands of people are having to walk up to 70 kilometres a month to collect food aid. Their rations are barely enough to compensate for the calories they burn off making the lengthy journey. 
As more roads open up more people are being killed by anti-tank and anti-personnel mines which have been hidden at strategic spots across the land. 
Former soldier Daniel Shindule, 28, lost limbs in two landmine incidents. He lost his lower arm and left eye in 1989 while fighting for the Government. 
In March this year one of his legs was blown off when he stepped on a landmine while hunting for food in a forest. 
Speaking from his tiny bed in an overcrowded and filthy hospital in Huambo, Daniel talks about taking his own life. 
"I have lost all hope for my future. The loss of my limbs has made life impossible and unbearable for me. It's so bad that my wife has left me. 
"I used to work as a builder but now I have lost a leg I have lost my livelihood. I may as well be dead."   
Everywhere you go in Huambo Province, home to a third of the country's population, you see people without limbs hobbling quietly along the bombed streets. 
The people of Angola are at one of the most crucial times in their long history. 
A lack of food caused by the inaccessibility of 45% of the country's roads, the demobilisation of 90,000 soldiers and their families and the loss of hundreds of townships and communities has left this country in tatters. 
According to UNICEF, Angola remains the worst country in the world for a child to be born. One in three children die before their fifth birthday. 
Everywhere you go in the county people are looking for lost relatives and friends, who were uprooted or perhaps died during the conflict. 
Officials estimate that a third of Angolans have kept hold of their weapons despite Government prompting to hand them in and it is easy to imagine this country at war again. But Non-Governmental Agencies agree this is unlikely. 
John Yale, country director of Angola for the international relief and development agency World Vision, says: "The people here are quite simply tired of war and are ready for peace and with the right help and support we believe they can really turn this country around."   
World Vision is one of a number of charities distributing food and rehabilitation kits (including seeds, hoes, cutlery and blankets) to thousands of vulnerable people in the country. 
The charity, which has an office in Milton Keynes, believes agricultural recovery is vital and is involved in a project to cultivate seeds – including sweet potato, beans, maize and organic varieties – which are better suited to the local soil and needs of the people. 
Jonathan White, the charity's operations director in Angola who is originally from Salisbury, says: "This is a critical phase in history. We need to help farmers get back land and get them into the fields which are the key to their long-term future." 
The charity also runs a Food for Work scheme giving workers oil, flour and maize in return for them repairing roads and carrying out farm work. 
A number of people to benefit from this live in Bailundo, in Huambo Province, which is home to transit centres for soldiers and their families waiting to be returned to their former communities. 
The centres are a depressing sight. Torn tents line a small enclosed area and hungry families huddle together sharing what little food they have, waiting for the Government to help relocate them. Some have been here for months. 
Sitting quietly under a tree is eight-year-old Jambo who lost his twin sister Loretta during fighting in his town two years ago. 
With the youngster unable to eat or speak after her death, his parents, who lost another two children, made him a small wooden doll which he now carries round his neck to remind him of his twin. 
His mother, Loretta Shilonbu, describes how his twin was lost when their home came under attack. 
"She ran one way and we ran the other. We found her body seven days later several kilometres from our house. She died of starvation."   
Nearby sits Florentina Manuela, 38, who tells how she was breastfeeding her twins during the war when one of them was shot. 
"My baby was on me, dead. Blood was running from him but I had no time to do anything but run with him still attached to me."   
Amazingly soldiers in the camp say they have no ill-feeling towards their former enemies and tell how they have forgotten past atrocities. 
And despite the problems facing this troubled land, Fernando Arroyo, of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, believes there is now room for hope. 
He says: "For the first time in years people have begun patching up bullet holes on the sides of their homes. This is a sure sign that they want peace and they want it to last." 
:: For more information on World Vision contact 0800 50 10 10 or www.worldvision.org.uk. 
  
ANGOLA FACTFILE 
::  Half the population of Angola are aged under 15 due to the low life expectancy rate and the loss of lives during the war. 
::  Only 2% of the population is aged over 65. 
::  Less than half the country's population use adequate sanitation facilities (44%). 
::  Figures from the United Nations Development Programme also show that 51% of people in Angola are under-nourished. 
::  Women were only given the right to vote in Angola in 1975, the year the country gained independence from Portugal. 
::  More than a third of the population lives in the country's capital, Luanda. 
::  Although the country has almost unlimited resources, wealth is concentrated in the hands of just 10% of Angolans. 
::  Oil and diamonds as well as fish, coffee, timber and cotton are the main exported goods. 
end