Angola: The Human Impact of War : A data review of field surveys in Angola between 1999-2005

INTRODUCTION The effects of armed conflicts on mortality fall into one of two categories: direct and indirect. By direct mortality we mean those violent deaths caused by military operations among both soldiers and civilians, often called battle deaths. The loss of life caused by armed conflicts does not stop there. In fact, much more death and misery is inflicted on civil populations by indirect means. Those collateral effects of conflict are commonly known as “indirect” or “excess” mortality. They account for those non-violent deaths among civil populations that would not have occurred without the conflict. Over the last decades, indirect deaths have greatly outnumbered direct battle-deaths in most conflicts. The main causes of those indirect deaths include economic collapse, food shortages and malnutrition, the disruption of health systems, mass population movements to overcrowded settlements, and the stretching of public safety systems due to long conflicts. In this document, we will analyze the human impact that the Angolan conflict has had on the civilian population in terms of mortality and malnutrition. Special attention will be paid to the differences in impact over time and according to the legal status of the population affected; residents, Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees. At the same time, we will assess the extent to which the Angolan conflict has caused an excess mortality and look into the main causes of this excess. Reconstruction, recovery and development activities in Angola require an in-depth understanding of past trends and patterns in essential population, health and nutrition indicators. Predictions of disease and mortality patterns, as well as health service needs, can best be projected using past trends and patterns of these indicators among the displaced, returnee and resident populations. We have focused the analysis on the last period of armed conflict between UNITA (National Union for Total Independence of Angola) and the Angolan Government in the years 1999-2002 and the post-conflict situation after the April 2002 ceasefire up to 2005. The last period of war between 1999 and 2002 was the most deadly, due in great part to the “scorched earth” military strategies of both warring sides. This caused a huge influx of IDPs to overcrowded cities, as well as rendering large areas of Angola inaccessible to international relief. With the aim of assessing the burden of conflict, we have used more than 90 quantitative surveys undertaken in Angola by several NGOs since 1999, as well as surveillance mortality data on Angolan refugee camps outside the borders. These surveys have been a reliable source of information on the level of distress caused by the conflict among the civil population