President dos Santos celebrates peace

ngola’s independence has contained challenges for the country, with discord among the key leaders of the liberation struggle causing conflict, and Cold War sponsorship and monopolized resource exploitation sustaining it.

During the final months of Portuguese rule in 1975, the various pro-independence factions were unable to develop a united front. The Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA) allied itself with the Soviet bloc and Cuba, while the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (UNITA) sought support from South Africa and the United States. Throughout the conflict the MPLA controlled Angola’s expanding oil fields while various alluvial diamond deposits fell under UNITA’s control.

Peace talks began in 1988 when Cuba and South Africa agreed to withdraw troops from Angola and the former USSR turned its attention toward its own domestic problems. Since the early 1990s Angola has been struggling to achieve a complex double transition: from war to peace, and from a state-controlled to a market economy with greater popular participation. To the Angolans’ credit, significant progress was made on both fronts. The armed conflict ended formally on April 4, 2002, with the signing of the Luena Accords. Angolan armed forces commander General Armando da Cruz Neto and rebel commander General Abreu Kamorteiro embraced after signing the agreement, while hundreds of thousands of Angolans took to the streets to celebrate.