Angola

Although Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer and rich in diamonds, it faces huge obstacles to its recovery from a 27-year civil war which killed 1.5 million people and uprooted more than 4 million.

Nearly 70 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line. A quarter of children in Angola die before the age of five, and at least 700,000 people are dependent on food aid for survival.

Angola has been the scene of war for more than 40 years, beginning with its war for independence from Portugal which ended in 1975.

Soon after independence, civil war broke out between the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

The Cold War played a large part in Angola's civil war. The Soviet Union and Cuba supported the then-Marxist MPLA, while the United States and South Africa backed UNITA. But when the Cold War ended Angola's conflict continued. UNITA rebels funded themselves through diamonds, while the Luanda-based government relied heavily on oil sales.

In 1991 the two sides signed a peace deal. Elections were held in 1992 but UNITA rejected the results and resumed the war. Another peace deal was signed in 1994, but fighting broke out again in 1998 despite the presence of U.N. peacekeepers from 1995-99.

The war finally ended in 2002 when UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was killed by government troops. The Angolan army and UNITA rebels signed a peace deal in April that year. Many former UNITA soldiers have since been integrated into the national army.

Conflict has continued, however, in the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda involving the separatist rebel group FLEC-FAC and government troops.

José Eduardo dos Santos has been president of Angola since 1979. The next general elections are due to take place in 2006.

Infrastructure
Poor infrastructure is one of the key obstacles to Angola's economic recovery. Large parts of Angola are almost completely inaccessible - roads, bridges and railways are either mined, washed away or were destroyed during the war. Poor infrastructure is also hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid and basic health and education services.

Landmines
Angola is the most heavily mined country in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the most mined in the world. It is not yet known how many landmines there are but estimates vary from 500,000 to six million - cca 35% of the land.
The presence of landmines means:
transport by road and rail is dangerous or impossible.
it is difficult to build health clinics and schools - the land may be mined
it is dangerous to farm new land.

Oil and diamonds
Angola is Africa's second-largest oil producer after Nigeria. In 2003 the government earned $3.89 billion from oil revenues, according to IMF figures. The IMF predicts that oil production will double to 2 million barrels per day by mid-2007.

Angola is one of the world's largest diamond producers. Partnership Africa Canada says that despite a projected income of $900 million in 2005 from diamond mining, many people living in the diamond-rich provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul still have no drinking water, electricity or roads.

Corruption
Angola is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Transparency International ranks it 151 out of 159 countries.

Agriculture
The majority of Angolans depend on agriculture for their survival. Before the war Angola was a major exporter of coffee and maize. But agricultural production plummeted during the war, and now more than 700,000 people are dependent on food aid.
Obstacles to recovery are:
*loss of skills among people who were forced off their land for decades
*poor infrastructure that cuts farmers off from markets, raises the cost of transport (many products have to be transported by air) and raises the cost of fertilisers and agricultural machinery
*landmines which prevent new land from being farmed
*loss of soil productivity
*periodic flooding and drought

Displaced people and refugees
Since the war ended in 2002 nearly 4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and 333,000 refugees have returned home, or settled in their host communities. According to UNHCR, the vast majority of refugees still living abroad are in camps in Zambia.

Health and education
Angola spends less than two percent of its GDP on health and less than five percent on education. According to the World Bank, these are some of the lowest percentages in Africa (the continent average is six percent and 10 percent respectively).

Angola has some of the worst health statistics in the world:
*Life expectancy is 40.2 years (United Nations Development Programme 2002)
*A quarter of children die before the age of five (U.N. Children's Fund)
*The most deadly diseases are: malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory diseases, measles, recurrent cholera epidemics and sleeping sickness
*In 2004 and 2005 Angola experienced the worst outbreak of the rare Marburg virus, which killed 329 people, most of them in Uige Province (World Health Organisation)
*At least 45 percent of children are severely malnourished (World Food Programme)
*In the central highlands 52 percent of children under five have been permanently stunted through lack of food (WFP)
*70 percent of doctors are concentrated in the capital. Nurses and primary health care workers are in acute shortage. (WHO)
*A joint WFP/Food and Agriculture Organisation mission in 2004 found that about 80 percent of the population has no access to essential drugs

*Literacy rate: 42 percent of the population over 15 years (WFP)
*42 percent of Angola's children are out of school (UNICEF)

Source