NEWS
Food rots in Luanda port as Angolans battle civil war and starvation

In a remarkable and disheartening turn of events, while Angolans are calling on the international to assist in alleviating the problems of food shortages, some of its lawmakers have discovered 129 cargo containers full of rotting food in Luanda harbour, a local Luanda news report revealed on Wednesday, September 1, 1999. The lawmakers toured the harbour's cargo area and were shown powdered milk, corn flour, pork, biscuits and other food spoiling inside the ship containers, state-run daily Jornal de Angola reported. Some of the containers had been in an outside storage area for years, according to the paper. Harbour officials are pressing lawmakers to change import rules that say goods must be held until they are claimed. The containers were never collected. Some 1.7 million Angolans are displaced and face often acute food shortages because of the two-decade war between the government and Unita rebels. Most of the homeless rely on food provided by western aid agencies. USAfricaonline/news24/