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| Post-war Angola | ||||||||||||||||
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| Years in Angola | ||||||||||||||||
The2000s inAngola saw the end of a 27-year-longcivil war (1975–2002) and economic growth as foreign nations began to invest in Angola's untappedpetroleum reserves. The government continues to resettleinternally displaced persons asits economy recovers and expands.
Illicit arms trading characterized much of the last years of the Angolan war. Each side tried to gain the upper hand by buying arms abroad inEastern Europe andRussia. A Russian freighter delivered 500 tons of Ukrainian 7.62mm ammunition to Simportex, a division of the Angolan government, with the help of a shipping agent inLondon on 21 September 2000. The ship's captain declared his cargo "fragile" to minimize inspection.[1] The next day, the MPLA began attacking UNITA, winning victories in several battles from 22 September–25. The government gained control over military bases and diamond mines inLunda Norte andLunda Sul, hurting Savimbi's ability to pay his troops.[2]
Angola agreed to trade oil toSlovakia in return for arms, buying sixSukhoi Su-17attack aircraft on 3 April 2000. The Spanish government in theCanary Islands prevented a Ukrainian freighter from delivering 636 tons of military equipment to Angola on 24 February 2001. The captain of the ship had inaccurately reported his cargo, falsely claiming the ship carried automobile parts. The Angolan government admitted Simportex had purchased arms fromRosvooruzhenie, the Russian state-owned arms company, and acknowledged the captain might have violated Spanish law by misreporting his cargo, a common practice in arms smuggling to Angola.[1]
UNITA carried out several attacks against civilians in May in a show of strength. UNITA militants attacked Caxito on 7 May, killing 100 people and kidnapping 60 children and two adults. UNITA then attacked Baia-do-Cuio, followed by an attack on Golungo Alto, a city 200 km east ofLuanda, a few days later. The militants advanced on Golungo Alto at 2:00 pm on 21 May, staying until 9:00 pm on 22 May when the Angolan military retook the town. They looted local businesses, taking food and alcoholic beverages before singing drunkenly in the streets. More than 700 villagers trekked 60 km from Golungo Alto toNdalatando, the provincial capital ofCuanza Norte, without injury. According to an aid official in Ndalatando, the Angolan military prohibited media coverage of the incident, so the details of the attack are unknown. Joffre Justino, UNITA's spokesman in Portugal, said UNITA only attacked Gungo Alto to demonstrate the government's military inferiority and the need to cut a deal.[3] Four days later UNITA released the children to a Catholic mission inCamabatela, a city 200 km (120 mi) from where UNITA kidnapped them. The national organization said the abduction violated their policy towards the treatment of civilians. In a letter to thebishops of Angola,Jonas Savimbi asked theCatholic church to act as an intermediary between UNITA and the government in negotiations.[4] The attacks took their toll on Angola's economy. At the end of May,De Beers, the internationaldiamond mining company, suspended its operations in Angola, ostensibly on the grounds that negotiations with the national government reached an impasse.[5]
Militants of unknown affiliation fired rockets atUnited Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) planes on 8 June nearLuena and again nearKuito a few days later. As the first plane, aBoeing 727, approached Luena someone shot a missile at the aircraft, damaging one engine but not critically as the three-man crew landed successfully. The plane's altitude, 5,000 metres, most likely prevented the assailant from identifying his target. As the citizens of Luena had enough food to last them several weeks, the UNFWP temporarily suspended their flights. When the flights began again a few days later, militants shot at a plane flying to Kuito, the first attack targeting UN workers since 1999.[6] TheUNWFP again suspended food aid flights throughout the country. While he did not claim responsibility for the attack,UNITA spokesman Justino said the planes carried weapons and soldiers rather than food, making them acceptable targets. UNITA and the Angolan government both said the international community needed to pressure the other side into returning to the negotiating table. Despite the looming humanitarian crisis, neither side guaranteed UNWFP planes safety.Kuito, which had relied on international aid, only had enough food to feed their population of 200,000.[7] The UNFWP had to fly in all aid to Kuito and the rest of the Central Highlands because militants ambushed trucks. Further complicating the situation, potholes in the Kuito airport strip slowed aid deliveries. Overall chaos reduced the amount of available oil to the point at which the UN had to import its jet fuel.[8]
Government troops captured and destroyed UNITA's Epongoloko base in Benguela province and Mufumbo base in Cuanza Sul in October 2001.[9] The Slovak government sold fighter jets to the Angolan government in 2001 in violation of theEuropean Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.[10]
Government troops killed Savimbi on 22 February 2002, in Moxico province.[11] UNITA Vice PresidentAntónio Dembo took over, but died from diabetes twelve days later on 3 March, and Secretary-GeneralPaulo Lukamba Gato became UNITA's leader.[12] After Savimbi's death, the government came to a crossroads over how to proceed. After initially indicating the counter-insurgency might continue, the government announced it would halt allmilitary operations on 13 March. Military commanders for UNITA and the MPLA met inCassamba and agreed to a cease-fire. However, Carlos Morgado, UNITA's spokesman inPortugal, said that the UNITA's Portugal wing had been under the impression General Kamorteiro, the UNITA general who agreed to the ceasefire, had been captured more than a week earlier. Morgado did say that he had not heard from Angola since Savimbi's death. The military commanders signed a Memorandum of Understanding as an addendum to theLusaka Protocol in Luena on 4 April, Dos Santos and Lukambo observing.[13][14]
TheUnited Nations Security Council passedResolution 1404 on 18 April, extending the monitoring mechanism of sanctions by six months.Resolutions 1412 and1432, passed on 17 May and 15 August respectively, suspended the UN travel ban on UNITA officials for 90 days each, finally abolishing the ban throughResolution 1439 on 18 October. UNAVEM III, extended an additional two months by Resolution 1439, ended on 19 December.[15]
UNITA's new leadership declared the rebel group a political party and officially demobilized its armed forces in August 2002.[16] That same month, the United Nations Security Council replaced the United Nations Office in Angola with the United Nations Mission in Angola, a larger, non-military, political presence.[17]
The civil war spawned a disastrous humanitarian crisis in Angola, internally displacing 4.28 million people, one-third of Angola's population. TheUnited Nations estimated in 2003 that 80% of Angolans lacked access to basic medical care, 60% lacked access to water, and 30% of Angolan children would die before the age of five, with an overalllife expectancy of less than forty years of age.[18] The government spent $187 million settling IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) between 4 April 2002 and 2004, after which theWorld Bank gave $33 million to continue the settling process. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that fighting in 2002 displaced 98,000 people between 1 January and 28 February alone. The IDPs, unacquainted with their surroundings, frequently and predominantly fell victim to these weapons. IDPs comprised 75% of all landmine victims. Militant forces laid approximately 15 millionlandmines by 2002.[17] TheHALO Trust charity began demining in 1994, destroying 30,000 by July 2007. There are 1,100 Angolans and seven foreign workers who are working for HALO Trust in Angola, with operations expected to finish sometime between 2011 and 2014.[19][20]
Human Rights Watch estimates UNITA and the government employed more than 6,000 and 3,000child soldiers respectively, some forcibly impressed, during the war. Human rights analysts found 5,000 to 8,000 underage girls married to UNITA militants. Some girls were ordered to go and forage for food to provide for the troops. If the girls did not bring back enough food as judged by their commander, then the girls would not eat. After victories, UNITA commanders would be rewarded with women who were often then sexually abused. The government and U.N. agencies identified 190 child soldiers in the Angolan army and relocated seventy of them by November 2002, but the government continued to knowingly employ other underage soldiers.[21]
The Angolan government pledged to abide by the provisions of theExtractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in June 2003.[22]
Inflation decreased from 410% in 2000 to 110% in 2001 and 18.5% in 2005 as foreign investment began to bear fruit. The proportion of deposits lent as credit increased from 30% to 70% from 2002 to 2005.Banco BPI, a Portuguese bank, makes over 25% of its net profits in Angola, Other banks based in Portugal and South Africa plan to open offices in Angola.[23]
Government representatives andBembo Bembe, a former leader ofFLEC, signed aMemorandum of Understanding on 1 August 2006, in an attempt to end the 29-year-long Cabindan war. Bembe signed ostensibly on behalf of theCabinda Forum for Dialogue (FCD). Many FCD members considered Bembe's signing illegitimate and rejected the agreement, which only granted Cabinda autonomy, not independence. The MoU included an amnesty for all crimes committed during the independence war (1977–2006).[24]
The government shut down Mpalabanda, a Cabindan human rights organization and a member of the FCD, by court order in June 2006. The government said Mpalabanda had engaged in illegal political activities. The NGO appealed the court's decision. Mpalabanda accused both the military and FLEC militants of committing human rights abuses in Cabinda. Border officials arrested Raul Danda, Mpalabanda's spokesman, at Cabinda airport on the charge of 'instigating crimes against the security of the state', owning pro-independence literature, on 29 September.[24]
Alan Kleier, the General Director forChevron Corporation's operations inAngola, met with Marco Nhunga, Deputy General of the IDA (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Agrário),Cynthia G. Efird, theUnited States Ambassador to Angola, and Estevão Rodrigues, Director of CLUSA in Angola, inBenguela province on 1 March 2007.[25]
Inclement weather caused a helicopter owned byBHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, to crash in Angola on 16 November 2007, killing the helicopter's five passengers, including BHP's chief operation officer in Angola, David Hopgood. The helicopter went down about 50 miles from Alto Cuilo Camp, a diamond mining site the employees wanted to visit. BHP Billiton responded by suspending operations in the country. The company is investigating the incident.[26]
The price of crude oil declined from $147.27 per barrel on 11 July 2008 to a 70% price drop in December. ManyOPEC members advocated cutting the supply of oil by 1.5 to 2 million barrels to artificially inflate the price of petroleum to roughly $75 per barrel.[27] Richard Segal, an analyst for theUnited Bank of Africa, posited that the2008 financial crisis made borrowing from the Chinese government cheaper than taking loans fromthe West. President dos Santos visitedChina shortly after the crisis erupted, meeting with PresidentHu Jintao, Prime MinisterWen Jiabao, andWu Bangguo, the President of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He asked his Chinese counterparts for $1 billion in investment in Angola's infrastructure, specifically in housing and water transportation. The Chinese government has invested $5–7 billion in Angola in return for Angola's crude oil. Nonetheless, Ricardo Gazel, a senior economist for theWorld Bank, predicted that Angola's initial budget for 2009, based on oil exports at $55 per barrel, would be revised with a much more modest outlook by as early as April 2009.[28]
Despite the decline in theprice of oil, Angola usurpedNigeria's place as the top producer of petroleum insub-Saharan Africa in early 2008. Angola's oil exports were the primary contributor to the country's 25% growth rate, attracting illegal immigrants fromWest Africa.[29] Angola LNG Limited awarded a $250 million contract toAcergy S.A., an oil and gas construction company, on 15 December to build an offshore pipeline, connecting five oil blocks with Angola LNG's plant inSoyo.[30]
Petra Diamonds company ended its operations in Alto Cuilo amid a general downturn in demand for diamonds on 19 December. The company also announced that it is considering leaving Luangue, losing $62.3 million the company had previously invested.[31]
The government heldlegislative elections on 5 September 2008, the first national election in sixteen years. Election observers reported serious electoral irregularities and restrictions on political freedom.[32]