Atenção Chihango is in his 70s, though he is not sure of his exact age. Despite his name, which in Portuguese means ‘attention’ or ‘careful’, Atenção had the misfortune of stepping on a landmine when he was a soldier in the Angolan Armed Forces during the civil war. He lost his left leg.
He sits in an open area with his wife and several elderly neighbours, among a cluster of mud brick huts that form the small rural community of Caleji, where he was born and where he has lived most of his life. Although there are a few children playing nearby and other members of the community working in the fields, the place, several kilometres from the town of Luau in the eastern province of Moxico, has the distinct feel of abandonment.
Like many young men at the time, Atenção joined the military in 1975 following the departure of the Portuguese from Angola. He served for 16 years and became the commander of a squad of soldiers in the Luau Brigade. In 1991 the opposition forces of UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), who fought the government for 27 years, launched one of many attacks on Luau. According to Atenção, UNITA fighters planted mines behind them as they pulled back, and it was on one of these that he stood.
“At the time, landmines were a new weapon for us; we were not yet accustomed to them on the battlefield,” he says. “Many, many men were killed and injured by them during the war.” Atenção stepped on the mine in Luanga, on the outskirts of Luau. The area was cleared by MAG in 2005 to allow refugees returning from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to have a safe place to settle after the war, which ended in 2002. It is now home to a community of nearly 6,000.
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"We don’t receive help from anyone. No one cares about us, but if MAG clears away all the mines then already our lives will be better."– Atenção Chihango, pictured with his wife in their home community of Caleji [Photos: J.B. Russell] |
Following his accident, Atenção was sent to the capital city of Luanda for treatment and rehabilitation. He stayed for three years before finally returning to his family in Caleji. He received only a small amount of money, a shirt and a pair of pants from the military before his departure. Life became very difficult:
“Every man has to have strength and all of his limbs to work and support his family, but I don’t have a leg and I must use my arms to walk with these crutches. Like this, I cannot work. We are dependent on other people to live. My wife’s family built our house for us. In the beginning my wife was cultivating in the fields, but now she is sick and can no longer work so hard. The mine that I stepped on ruined my life.”
Even back in Caleji, Atenção and his community were not safe: “People must cultivate food, they must walk about, collect firewood. Here we do not have an alternative to doing these things, but people are doing them in fear because they know that the area is mined.
"In the rainy season the mines can move and you can find them in places where they were not before. Sometimes they are buried deep in the earth, so there is less risk of stepping on them, but when we are working in the fields with our tools they can explode.”
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In late 2006, MAG cleared the area north of the Caleji. The villagers are now using this land for agricultural purposes, collecting firewood and gathering medicinal herbs.
Nevertheless, Caleji’s population is in decline due to a lack of infrastructure and services. The village has no school, no health post, nor fresh water well. As a result, many people are migrating to Luau town, where they have access to these facilities.
Atenção looks back on the war and its consequences: “All these things – guns, mines, military material – they destroy the lives of people. War is very, very bad. We do not know everyone who brought these things here, but we see who is taking them away, who is destroying them. We worry about our children because they like to move and play and run.
“We hope MAG will finish clearing all the mines, so that we can avoid even just one child from stepping on one of them. We don’t receive help from anyone. No one cares about us, but if MAG clears away all the mines then already our lives will be better. If the mines are all gone, then maybe the government will come and help us and maybe people will start coming back.”
Your donation to MAG helps us to move into current and former conflict zones to lessen the threat of death and injury for communities.
Links:
- MAG Angola microsite - find out more about MAG's work in the country
- Why does MAG work in Angola?
- Click on Tags below for related articles
21 September 09
MAG's work in Angola is supported by: DFID (UK Department for International Development); Office of
Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; Royal Government of the Netherlands.
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