A 6-year-old boy screams in pain as his leg stump is cleaned

September 25, 1999
Web posted at: 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT)

In this story: Fighting displaces 2 million Many out of reach of aid workers Small elite 'living high on the hog' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

KUITO, Angola (CNN) -- Twenty five years of civil war have left Angola with a grim legacy. About one of every 356 people is an amputee -- one of the highest ratios in the world.

With renewed fighting between the government and UNITA rebels, scores more people lose limbs every week by stepping on freshly laid land mines.

At a rundown hospital in the provincial capital of Kuito, many of those injured are children. Medicines are in short supply so they are often treated without anesthetics or even painkillers.

"I feel sad," said a nurse at the hospital. "Day after day it's the same thing. It never ends."

A U.N. report issued before the latest outbreak of fighting said there were at least 15 million active land mines scattered throughout Angola.

Santos, left, makes a toast during his birthday party

The fighting has forced up to 2 million Angolans to flee their homes and left hundreds of thousands to face war-induced famine.

"There's a lack of everything, mostly food for the displaced," said Luis Paulino dos Santos, provincial governor in Kuito.

A U.N. official said the number of refugees would be even higher if people had the strength to leave their homes.

"Fewer and fewer people are coming out because of the war situation and because they lack the physical strength to move," said Soren Jessen-Pettersen of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fighting has caused famine in many areas

An estimated 3 million Angolans are out of the reach of aid workers because they live in the 70 percent of the country under the control of UNITA -- a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

Neither the Angolan government nor the rebel movement will guarantee the safety of international aid workers, said Jessen-Pettersen.

"We are close to powerless, but people are suffering in a way that seems indescribable," he said.

The government has ordered international aid agencies to withdraw key staff from Kuito and two other major cities, Melanje and Huambo, as it launches a major assault against the rebels.

In the capital of Luanda, the country's small elite appears oblivious to the suffering.

At President Eduardo dos Santos' recent 57th birthday party, clean and well-fed children from a few carefully selected schools sang for the president before he danced with a Brazilian soap opera star flown in for the event.

"The rich elite, about 500 people in Luanda, are helping themselves and are living high on the hog, whereas the rest of the people are left to fend for themselves," observed Richard Cornwall of the Institute of Security Studies.

Correspondent Bob Coen, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.