The Organization of Angolan Women - OMA is the women's wing of the Popular Movement of the Liberation Angola (MPLA) and has over one and a half million members now. It represents the determination of the women of Angola. We started the "Pennies for Angola" campaign in response to the intense attacks against the Angolan people in 1999 by UNITA, a rebel organization attacking those (mainly women) who do the planting of food in the rural areas.

The Angolan government is to press ahead with elections next year despite the country's on-going civil war, Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister George Chicoti told IRIN on Thursday. "We will hold parliamentary and probably presidential elections next year, whatever the situation on the ground is," Chicoti said.

Twenty people were killed and 17 wounded when their vehicle hit an anti-tank mine in northern Angola, news reports said Friday. Two others died later in the hospital at Malange, about 190 miles east of the capital, Luanda, the Portuguese news agency Lusa said. The blast took place Thursday on a rural road about 25 miles north of Malange, according to Lusa.

Recent peace overtures by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi have been matched on the battlefield by heightened military action across the country in recent months. Reports of UNITA and Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) attacks, retaliations and offensives have been constant and regular.

Amnesty International is concerned about the abduction of 60 children and two adults by UNITA and fear for their safety; unlawful killing. It calls for the immediate release of the children and the two adults abducted by UNITA; to publicize the plight of children as victims of armed conflict in Angola.