ANGOLA

An annual challenge: The race against the rainy season

Angola covers 1,246,700 sq. km, which is around three and a half times the size of Germany. The former Portuguese colony (until 1975) is in the tropics. The rainy season in the North lasts from October to May and in the South from November until March. The rains divide into a small deluge in October and November and a large one in March and April.

The annual rainfall at the coast fluctuates between 340 mm in Luanda and 50 mm in the Angolian part of the desert Namib in the South. In the somewhat cooler highland the rainfall decreases from the north (1,500 mm) to the south (750 mm). In practical terms this means that in the rainy season the flat parts turn into seas of muddy water and the tropical rain forest turns to muddy mountains. In huge parts of the country all road traffic stops and the population suffers from collective malaria. Nothing dries and we can watch our demining gear grow mold. Electronic equipment stops working and all demining operations have to stop because, according to the safety standards, it would not be possible to evacuate a casualty quickly during an emergency.

In the rainy season, the 2 hour drive from headquarters to the operational field of Bengo can easily turn into days in the mud.

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