The trying job of Angola's 'people detectives'

[dArKeR]

Sovica Ricardo Justo is trying to keep his composure, attempting to look nonchalant. It's not cool for a 17-year-old to get soppy and soft at a family reunion.

But his laid-back demeanour crumbles when he sees his older brother, Satuma, across the street. Sovica clasps his hand over his mouth and the tears well up in his eyes.

Satuma dodges the traffic in the ever-busy Angolan capital, Luanda, to get to the younger brother he hasn't seen since 1992, "when he was just a baby". In what has become a traditional greeting, he hoists Sovica into the air.

For staff at the Angolan Red Cross and the national delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), scenes like this are now familiar.

The humanitarian organisation has spent almost two years helping reunite families separated by 27 years of civil conflict, bringing 836 children back together with parents, aunts, uncles and siblings.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32116

What is the root cause of the 'civil conflict'?