By ARNALDO VIEIRA

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Doctors in Angola went on a five-day strike beginning Monday to demand better working conditions, and allowances among other demands from the government.

According to the National Union of Angolan Doctors (Sinmea), only "minimal services will be provided in the emergency and intensive care units, but infirmary activities and external consultations will be suspended countrywide" during the strike period.

Last week, Sinmea held a meeting with authorities drawn from the Ministry of Health, but no positive resolution was reached.  

Sinmea is also demanding the removal of the ban imposed on its head, Mr Adriano Manuel, who has been suspended from his job for a year and six months after he denounced the death of around 20 children in two days at the Pediatric Hospital of Luanda.

Last week, forty Russian doctors went on strike in Benguela province over 25-month salary payment arrears totalling to about $20 million.

Russian doctors are paid by the Zdravexport Group Company, a Russian company that operates in the country under a contract with the Ministry of Health.

The government is yet to issue an official communication regarding the strike.

Angola has had an extremely poor public healthcare system attributed to the 27-year war which ended in 2002.

The majority of the country’s population of 32 million people have limited access to medical care while the middle and higher class get their healthcare services from private healthcare providers.

According to the Usaid, Angola continues to struggle to improve child and maternal mortality rates, which are among the highest in the world: almost 1 in 5 children dies before the fifth birthday, and the maternal mortality rate is 610 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Malaria is widespread and the number one killer in the southern African country.