Recently, the government has confined the hundreds of thousands of displaced people to the outskirts of the besieged provincial capitals. Around Malange, Kuito and Huambo, grass and straw settlements are springing up. Due to the scarcity and competition for these natural resources, in order to build their huts, people have to go further away, straying from well-known paths. In doing this, they risk landmines. His mother explains he was looking for firewood near Kuito in August and went beyond the paths where mines had been cleared.
Deforestation affects all of Angola, but it is worse in the war- ravaged central highlands.
Although war has pretty much spared the dry southern Namibe Province, fighting has reduced the areas where pastoralists used to roam, pushing them into a corner against the sea. Overgrazing and the loss of nomadic patterns translate into excessive pressure on the land. The wind accelerates erosion. The coastal desert is encroaching. The great teak forests of the southern provinces are long gone.