Aid agency donating $1.5m to tackle malaria in Angola

An international aid agency has pledged $1.5 million to Angola to tackle malaria over three years, it has been reported.

The latest malaria figures reported to the World Health Organization revealed 1.5 million people in Angola had the disease in 2002 out of a population of 17 million.

Angolan press agency, Luanda, reported that the Agency for International Development had promised $1.5 million (£980,000) to treat affected communities in the country.

The cash would be distributed by non-government organisation, Ajuda de Desenvolvimentos de Povo para Povo Angolano.

Money would be spent on 100,000 people including 25,000 pregnant women and small children in the northern Zaire province.

It would pay for mosquito nets and modern artemisinin-based malaria therapy.

An education programme would also take place with 200 teachers to help provide communities with information, the news portal reported.

Pregnant women and small children are most vulnerable to malaria, which killed more than 11,000 people in Angola in 2002, the latest figures showed.

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