ANGOLA- Assistance to Flood Victims Receives New Backing- IOM programmes to provided non-food and shelter assistance to vulnerable flood-affected households in the south-eastern Kuando Kubango province have received new backing from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and from the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC).

The USD 273,000 CERF funding will allow IOM to distribute additional shelter materials, including corrugated iron sheeting and tarpaulins, as well as blankets, clothes, hygiene and cooking items to some 20,000 beneficiaries living in the municipalities of Mavinga, Rivungo, Calai and Savate.

The USD 14,000 funding from SDC will provide direct assistance to some 1,000 particularly vulnerable families living in the municipalities of Menongue, Missombo and Caiundo.

“The assistance will be distributed by IOM staff to vulnerable families, mostly female-headed displaced households, demobilized soldiers and returnees living in some of the more remote locations,” says IOM’s chief of mission in Angola, Katharina Schnoring. “The cargo will be flown next week to Kuando Kubango by the National Commission for Civil Protection.”  

To date, IOM teams working with UN partners and Angola’s Civil Protection Unit have registered more than 56,000 vulnerable IDPs living in Kuando Kubango and Kunene provinces, which have been particularly affected by heavy rains and flooding since late January.

According to the Angolan government’s Civil Protection Unit, the floods have led to the loss of livestock, and the destruction of or damage to crops, roads, houses, and schools.