The War in Angola

The report was produced by Monitor Radio and originally broadcast in February of 1994. Rebroadcast of Monitor Radio is made possible by the Internet Multicasting Service and our sponsors.

Soldiers

In Angola, war has become a way of life. The west African nation's civil war has been raging since the country's independence from Portugal in 1976. In 1991, the government signed an agreement with guerillas of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, otherwise known as UNITA, and it seemed that peace was finally at hand. But the resulting period of calm ended only 18 months later. UNITA lost the country's first multiparty elections, the rebels cried foul, and the fighting was rekindled. The estimate is that a thousand people in Angola die daily from disease, hunger, and combat. From the southern city of Menogue, Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow reports that despite its own fatigue, each side vows to fight until the other is exhausted.

Refugees

Ever since Angola won its independence from Portugal in 1975, the country's story has been one of civil war. There was one pause in the long struggle, but after democratic elections, which the UNITA rebels lost, Angola sank back into battle. United Nations officials have been trying to broker another cease-fire, but recent fighting has been fierce and inconclusive. Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow traveled through some of the Angolan war zones in autumn a year ago and filed this report on the war's refugees in the Bengo province, north of Luanda, the capital.

Angola Aid

On the eve of its independence from Portugal in 1975, war broke out in Angola. The fighting wouldn't stop for the next 16 years. The civil war between Marxist government forces and Jonas Savimbi's Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, rebels left an estimated 350,000 dead. But after the 1992 elections the war resumed, an additional 100,000 people have died and thousands more are malnourished or starving. Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow Toured some of Angola's War zones and reports on the efforts to relieve the suffering of the civilian population.

Angola Economy

Angola's long-running war has killed an estimated 500,000 people since the country gained independence form Portugal in 1976. Fighting worsened after Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebel movement protested the results of the country's 1992 elections and resumed the civil war. Since that time an estimated 100,000 people have been killed and another 3 million Angolans have been displaced. Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow reports from the Angolan capital of Luanda on what war has done to the country's economy.

Cuito

The fighting in Angola, just in the last year and a half alone, has been more intense than at any other time since the country's civil war began almost 20 years ago. More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since October, 1992, when Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebel movement went back to war against the MPLA government forces that won the elections a month earlier. UNITA is thought to control more than 60 percent of the country now, and it still holds key cities where the inhabitants are virtual prisoners. Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow takes listeners to one such town in the heart of Angola.

Angola Mines

In Angola, even as there is talk of peace, ending the bloodshed won't be as simple as a cease-fire agreement between the government and the rebels. Scattered across the Angolan landscape is a deadly residue from the nearly two-decades-old conflict. Land mines buried beneath roads nand in fields pose a constant hazard to traffic and civilians. Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow tells us that unless those mines can be defused, the killing may continue long after the guns fall silent.

International Aid

It's been called "The Worst War in the World." The war in Angola started when the country received its independence from Portugal in 1975. After an 18-month peace effort, Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebel movement went back to war against the MPLA Government because the rebels lost the elections in September of 1992. More than 300,000 civilians have been killed since the fighting resumed. UNITA is thought to control more than 60 percent of the country, and still holds key government cities under siege, especially in the north, east, and south. Many areas are wholly dependent on food from the outside world, and international aid agencies are struggling to supply the necessities to a desperate population. Monitor Radio's Philip Winslow filed this report from Manlange in central Angola.

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• The Drum
• U. Penn African Studies Server
• Map of Angola
• Networking in Africa
• Georgia State University Africa Gopher

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