The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Angola and the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator in Angola are investigating this past weekend’s mass abduction of 60 children in Angola. The attack took place in the town of Caxito, about 30 miles northeast of Luanda, Angola, according to Unicef. The 60 children were abducted during an attack on Children's Town, a home for children run by the nongovernmental organization ADPP, about six miles outside of Caxito. The children range in age from 10 to 18 years and include nine girls and 51 boys. One of their Angolan teachers was also abducted. The current whereabouts of the children and their teacher are unknown.

In Angola, survivors of Saturday's raid on a school by Unita rebels have been speaking to journalists for the first time. Sixty children, most of them war refugees from all over the country, are still missing after being abducted by the rebels.

Angolan government troops have retaken the rebel-held town of Mavinga in the southern province of Cuando Cubango a state-run newspaper reported on Monday. "Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) recaptured Mavinga on 1 May, having caused various losses to Jonas Savimbi's terrorist forces," 'Jornal de Angola' said, quoting an unnamed military source. The report added that the government has also recaptured the nearby airport, vital for supplying UNITA and for the export of raw materials.

A "critical" humanitarian situation is unfolding in the Angolan central highlands as a result of "persistent insecurity" that has driven people off their land, an OCHA statement has warned.

The provincial government of Namibe in southern Angola has appealed to the international community and non-governmental organisations operating in Angola to help victims of new flooding which has left more than 7,000 families homeless and in desperate need of food, shelter and medicines, World Vision reported on Thursday.

The Senior Inter-Agency Network on Internal Displacement, led by the UN Special Coordinator on Internal Displacement, together with representatives of FAO, the Office of the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons (RSG on IDPs), UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and the NGO community, undertook a mission to Angola from 12 to 17 March 2001. The report of the mission is now available.

A United Nations-led inter-agency mission to Angola has reacted with alarm to the numerous allegations of human rights abuses it heard on its six-day visit.