According to Father Adriano Canjamba, quoted this Monday by the Catholic Broadcaster of Angola, poverty is evident in the communes of Lupiri, Longa and Baixo Longa, in the municipality of Cuito Cuanavale, and local people have seen wild fruits as the source of subsistence.
"Here poverty is factual, sometimes we see in the media that the country is united, life takes place in the municipalities, in short, all the literature that can be found, but I say that that is just rhetoric, if not demagoguery" , said the priest to Catholic radio.
The parish priest of Cuito Cuanavale, in southern Angola, also made known that in those places "there are even people who do not know the taste of salt, not to mention oil, so the only resource they have is land."
"Thank God if the rain comes there it's a joy, if it doesn't rain it's a great ordeal because they sometimes have to resort to wild fruits, especially in the localities of Longa, Lupiri and Baixo Longa," said Father Adriano Canjamba.
The Catholic priest also said that local communities "do not see or feel any reflection" of the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM), the central government's program for the development of municipalities.
He also lamented the lack of medical and drug assistance, referring that the local populations "live on divine providence and resort to roots to treat diseases".
Cuando-Cubango is one of the southern provinces of Angola affected in recent years by the long drought and drought, a situation that contributes to the constant mobility of populations in search of livelihoods.
The Government is carrying out several actions, such as the construction of structural projects and the distribution of water and food to the population, with a view to counteracting the current drought scenario.
Last September, the President, João Lourenço, created a "task force" to fight hunger and drought in the south of the country, coordinated by the Minister of State for the Social Area, Carolina Cerqueira.
