About the CBI

September 2005
 Background Note: Angola

Flag of Angola is two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and black with a
centered yellow emblem consisting of a five-pointed star within half a
cogwheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a hammer and sickle).

PROFILE

OFFICIAL NAME:
Republic of Angola

Geography
Area: 1,246,700 sq. km. (481,400 sq. mi), about twice the size of Texas.
Cities: Capital--Luanda (pop. 4.0 million); Huambo (750,000); Benguela
(600,000).
Terrain: A narrow, dry coastal strip extending from the far north (Luanda) to
Namibia in the south; well-watered agricultural highlands; savanna in the far
east and south; and rain forest in the north and the enclave of Cabinda.
Climate: Tropical and tropical highland.

People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Angolan(s).
Population (December 2004 est.): 14,600,000.
Annual population growth rate (2003): 2.8%.
Ethnic groups: Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mixed racial 2%,
European 1%.
Religions (2001 official est.): Roman Catholic 68%, various Protestant 20%;
indigenous beliefs 12%.
Languages: Portuguese (official), Ovimbundu, Kimbundu, Bakongo, and others.
Education: Years compulsory--8. Enrollment (2003 est.)--primary school 55%,
secondary 30%, and post-secondary 3%. Literacy (total population over 15 that
can read and write, 2002 est.)--42% (male 56%, female 28%).
Health: Life expectancy (2002 est.)--total population 46.7 years. Infant
mortality rate (2003 est.)--154/1,000.
Work force (2003 est. 5.6 million): Agriculture--85%; industry and
commerce--15%; services--6%.

Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: November 11, 1975.
Branches: Executive--elected president (chief of state), appointed prime
minister, and 40 appointed civilian ministers. Legislative--elected National
Assembly (233 seats). Judicial--Supreme Court (also functions as
Constitutional Court).
Administrative subdivisions: Province, municipality, commune.
Political parties: 123 with legal status; in 1992, 12 won seats in the
National Assembly. Pro-government--Popular Movement for the Liberation of
Angola (MPLA). Opposition--National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola (UNITA), Social Renewal Party (PRS), National Front for the Liberation
of Angola (FNLA), Party for Democratic Progress - Angola National Alliance
(PDP-ANA), Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), Party of the Alliance of Youth,
Workers, and Peasants (PAJOCA), Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), Democratic
Alliance (AD), Angolan Democratic Forum (FDA), Social Democratic Party (PSD),
and the Angolan National Democratic Party (PNDA).
Suffrage: Universal age 18 and over.

Economy
GDP (2005 est. using purchasing power parity): $45.6 billion.
GDP (2005 est. using Atlas method): $21.6 billion.
Annual real GDP growth rate (2005 est.): 13.8%.
Per capita GDP (2004 est. using purchasing power parity): $2,525.
Per capita GDP (2004 est. using Atlas method): $951.
Avg. inflation rate (2004): 40.4%.
Natural resources: Petroleum, diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, bauxite,
uranium, gold, granite, copper, feldspar.
Agriculture: Products--bananas, sugarcane, coffee, sisal, corn, cotton,
manioc, tobacco, vegetables, plantains; livestock; forest products; fisheries
products.
Industry: Types--petroleum drilling and refining, mining, cement, basic metal
products, fish processing, food processing, brewing, tobacco products, sugar
refining, textiles.
Trade: Exports (2004)--$9.8 billion: petroleum and derivatives (91.92%),
diamonds (7.45%), fish (0.11%), scrap metal (0.05%), coffee, sisal, timber,
cotton. Major markets (2003)--U.S. (47.74%), China (23.37%), France (7.35%),
South Korea (2.84%). Imports (2003 est.)--$4.1 billion, machinery, electrical
equipment, vehicles and spare parts, medicines, food, textiles. Major sources
(2003)--Portugal (18.2%), U.S. (12.1%), South Africa (11.0%), Japan (1.3%),
South Korea, Brazil.

GEOGRAPHY
Angola is located on the South Atlantic Coast of West Africa between Namibia
and the Republic of the Congo. It also is bordered by the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and Zambia to the east. The country is divided into an arid
coastal strip stretching from Namibia to Luanda; a wet, interior highland; a
dry savanna in the interior south and southeast; and rain forest in the north
and in Cabinda. The Zambezi River and several tributaries of the Congo River
have their sources in Angola. The coastal strip is tempered by the cool
Benguela current, resulting in a climate similar to coastal Baja California.
There is a short rainy season lasting from February to April. Summers are hot
and dry, while winters are mild. The interior highlands have a mild climate
with a rainy season from November through April followed by a cool dry season
from May to October when overnight temperatures can fall to freezing.
Elevations generally range from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. The far north and
Cabinda enjoy rain throughout much of the year.

PEOPLE
Estimates of Angola's population vary widely, as there has been no census for
many years. Angola has three main ethnic groups, each speaking a Bantu
language: Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, and Bakongo 13%. Other groups include
Chokwe, Lunda, Ganguela, Nhaneca-Humbe, Ambo, Herero, and Xindunga. In
addition, mixed racial (European and African) people amount to about 2%, with
a small (1%) population of whites, mainly ethnically Portuguese. Portuguese
make up the largest non-Angolan population, with at least 30,000 (though many
native-born Angolans can claim Portuguese nationality under Portuguese law).
Portuguese is both the official and predominant language.

HISTORY
In 1482, when the Portuguese first landed in what is now northern Angola,
they encountered the Kingdom of the Congo, which stretched from modern Gabon
in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. Mbanza Congo, the capital, had
a population of 50,000 people. South of this kingdom were various important
states, of which the Kingdom of Ndongo, ruled by the ngola (king), was most
significant. Modern Angola derives its name from the king of Ndongo. The
Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal strip throughout the 16th
century by a series of treaties and wars. The Dutch occupied Luanda from
1641-48, providing a boost for anti-Portuguese states. In 1648,
Brazilian-based Portuguese forces re-took Luanda and initiated a process of
military conquest of the Congo and Ndongo states that ended with Portuguese
victory in 1671. Full Portuguese administrative control of the interior did
not occur until the beginning of the 20th century.

Portugal's primary interest in Angola quickly turned to slavery. The slaving
system began early in the 16th century with the purchase from African chiefs
of people to work on sugar plantations in São Tomé, Principé, and Brazil.
Many scholars agree that by the 19th century, Angola was the largest source
of slaves not only for Brazil, but also for the Americas, including the
United States. By the end of the 19th century, a massive forced labor system
had replaced formal slavery and would continue until outlawed in 1961. It was
this forced labor that provided the basis for development of a plantation
economy and, by the mid-20th century, a major mining sector. Forced labor
combined with British financing to construct three railroads from the coast
to the interior, the most important of which was the transcontinental
Benguela railroad that linked the port of Lobito with the copper zones of the
Belgian Congo and what is now Zambia, through which it connects to Dar Es
Salaam, Tanzania.

Colonial economic development did not translate into social development for
native Angolans. The Portuguese regime encouraged white immigration,
especially after 1950, which intensified racial antagonisms. As
decolonization progressed elsewhere in Africa, Portugal, under the Salazar
and Caetano dictatorships, rejected independence and treated its African
colonies as overseas provinces. Consequently, three independence movements
emerged: the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) led by
Agostinho Neto, with a base among Kimbundu and the mixed-race intelligentsia
of Luanda, and links to communist parties in Portugal and the East Bloc; the
National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), led by Holden Roberto
with an ethnic base in the Bakongo region of the north and links to the
United States and the Mobutu regime in Kinshasa; and the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Malheiro Savimbi with
an ethnic and regional base in the Ovimbundu heartland in the center of the
country and links to the People's Republic of China and apartheid South
Africa.

From the early 1960s, elements of these movements fought against the
Portuguese. A 1974 coup d'etat in Portugal established a military government
that promptly ceased the war and agreed, in the Alvor Accords, to hand over
power to a coalition of the three movements. The ideological differences
between the three movements eventually led to armed conflict, with FNLA and
UNITA forces, encouraged by their respective international supporters,
attempting to wrest control of Luanda from the MPLA. The intervention of
troops from South Africa on behalf of UNITA and Zaire on behalf of the FNLA
in September and October 1975 and the MPLA's importation of Cuban troops in
November effectively internationalized the conflict. Retaining control of
Luanda, the coastal strip, and increasingly lucrative oil fields in Cabinda,
the MPLA declared independence on November 11, 1975, the day the Portuguese
abandoned the capital. UNITA and the FNLA formed a rival coalition government
based in the interior city of Huambo. Agostinho Neto became the first
president of the MPLA government that was recognized by the United Nations in
1976. Upon Neto's death from cancer in 1979, then-Planning Minister José
Eduardo dos Santos ascended to the presidency.

The FNLA's military failures led to its increasing marginalization, internal
divisions, and abandonment by international supporters. An internationalized
conventional civil war between UNITA and the MPLA continued until 1989. For
much of this time, UNITA controlled vast swaths of the interior and was
backed by U.S. resources and South African troops. Similarly, tens of
thousands of Cuban troops remained in support of the MPLA, often fighting
South Africans on the front lines. A U.S.-brokered agreement resulted in
withdrawal of foreign troops in 1989 and led to the Bicesse Accord in 1991,
which spelled out an electoral process for a democratic Angola under the
supervision of the United Nations. When UNITA's Jonas Savimbi failed to win
the first round of the presidential election in 1992 (he won 40% to dos
Santos's 49%, which meant a runoff), he called the election fraudulent and
returned to war. Another peace accord, known as the Lusaka Protocol, was
brokered in Lusaka, Zambia, and signed in 1994. This agreement, too,
collapsed into renewed conflict. The UN Security Council voted on August 28,
1997 to impose sanctions on UNITA. The Angolan military launched a massive
offensive in 1999, which destroyed UNITA's conventional capacity and
recaptured all major cities previously held by Savimbi's forces. Savimbi then
declared a return to guerrilla tactics, which continued until his death in
combat in February 2002.

On April 4, 2002, the Angolan Government and UNITA signed the Luena
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which formalized the de facto cease-fire
that prevailed following Savimbi's death. In accordance with the MOU, UNITA
recommitted to the peace framework in the 1994 Lusaka Protocol, returned all
remaining territory to Angolan Government control, quartered all military
personnel in predetermined locations, and relinquished all arms. In August
2002, UNITA demobilized all military personnel and in September 2002,
together with the government, reconstituted the UN-sponsored Joint Commission
to resolve all outstanding political issues under the Lusaka Protocol. On
November 21, 2002, UNITA and the government declared all outstanding issues
resolved and the Lusaka Protocol fully implemented. UN Security Council
sanctions on UNITA were lifted on December 9, 2002. In advance of national
elections projected for 2006, UNITA and the MPLA held their first post-war
party congresses in June and December 2003, respectively. The UNITA Congress
saw the democratic transfer of power from interim leader General Paulo
Lukumba "Gato" to former UNITA representative in Paris Isaias Henriqué
Samakuva, while the MPLA Congress reaffirmed President dos Santos' leadership
of party structures.

The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), formed in
1974, rejects the Alvor Accords that included Cabinda as part of Angolan
territory at independence. Since 1975, FLEC has engaged in low-level guerilla
attacks against government targets and has periodically kidnapped foreigners
in an effort to press for an independent Cabindan state. Leadership struggles
within FLEC have led to its breakup into various splinter factions, two of
which continue the movement's armed insurgency. The international community
has rejected the notion of Cabindan independence. The Angolan Armed Forces
(FAA) launched a major offensive against FLEC in November 2002. While the
offensive was moderately successful, at least one of the FLEC factions
retains a guerilla capability. Periodic, separate negotiations between the
leadership of the two armed FLEC factions and the Angolan Government have
failed to produce a settlement to the conflict.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Angola changed from a one-party Marxist-Leninist system ruled by the MPLA to
a nominal multiparty democracy following the 1992 elections, in which
President dos Santos won the first-round election with more than 49% of the
vote to Jonas Savimbi's 40%; a runoff never took place. The Constitutional
Law of 1992 establishes the broad outlines of government structure and
delineates the rights and duties of citizens. The government is based on
ordinances, decrees, and decisions issued by a president and his ministers or
through legislation produced by the National Assembly and approved by the
president. The parliament is generally subordinate to the executive.

Few opportunities exist for opposition parties to challenge MPLA dominance.
President dos Santos has proposed that general elections be held in 2006. A
multi-party constitutional reform process will resume following elections.

Angola is governed by a president who is assisted by a prime minister and 30
cabinet ministers, all appointed by the president. Political power is
concentrated in the presidency. The executive branch of the government is
composed of the president (head of state and government), the prime minister,
and the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers, composed of all
government ministers and vice ministers, meets regularly to discuss policy
issues. The President, the Council of Ministers, and individual ministers in
their areas of competence have the ability to legislate by decree.

The National Assembly has 220 members elected in 1992 (three seats for
Angolans living abroad have never been filled). They represent parties whose
weight is determined by a formula that takes into account national tickets
and provincial voting. The ruling MPLA controls 59% of the seats.

The central government administers the country through 18 provinces.
Governors of the provinces are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the
president.

The legal system is based on Portuguese and customary law but is weak and
fragmented. Courts operate in only a fraction of the 164 municipalities. A
Supreme Court serves as the appellate tribunal; a Constitutional Court with
powers of judicial review has never been constituted despite statutory
authorization. Recently, the Supreme Court has acted as a Constitutional
Court.

The 27-year-long civil war ravaged the country's political and social
institutions. The government estimates that 4.7 million people were
internally displaced by the civil war. Since 2002, more than 300,000 of
Angola's original 450,000 refugees have returned home. In 2005, the
anticipated final year for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
organized return program, an anticipated 53,000 refugees will be assisted in
returning to Angola. Daily conditions of life throughout the country mirror
the inadequate administrative infrastructure as well as weak social
institutions. Government support for social institutions is often inadequate.
Many hospitals are without medicines or basic equipment, schools are without
books, and public employees often lack the basic supplies for their
day-to-day work.

Principal Government Officials
President--Jose Eduardo dos Santos
Prime Minister--Fernando da Piedad Dias dos Santos "Nando"
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs--Aguinaldo Jaime
Minister of External Affairs--João Bernardo de Miranda
Minister of the Interior--Osvaldo de Jesus Serrá Van Dúnem
Minister of Finance--José Pedro de Morais
Minister of Defense--Kundi Paihama
Minister of Petroleum--Desidério da Graça Veríssimo da Costa
Minister of Planning--Ana Dias Lourenço
Ambassador to the United States--Josefina Perpetua Pitra Diakite
Permanent Representative to the United Nations--Ismael Gaspar Martins

Angola maintains an embassy in the United States at 2100-2108 16th St., NW,
Washington, DC 20009 (tel. 202-785-1156; fax 202-822-9049; web:
www.angola.org ). Angola also maintains consulates in New York City (attached
to its Permanent Mission to the United Nations) at 866 UN Plaza, 48th St.,
Suite 552, New York, NY 10017 (tel. 212-233-3588, ext. 15; fax 212-980-9606;
web: www.un.int/angola ) and in Houston at 3040 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 708,
Houston, TX 77056 (tel. 713-212-3840; fax 713-212-3841).

ECONOMY
Angola has a fast-growing economy largely due to a major oil boom, but it
also ranks in the bottom 10 of almost every socioeconomic indicator. Aside
from the oil sector and diamonds, it is recovering from 27 years of nearly
continuous warfare, corruption, and economic mismanagement. Despite abundant
natural resources, and rising per capita GDP, Angola was ranked 166 out of
177 countries on the UNDP's Human Development Index Subsistence agriculture
sustains two- thirds of the population.

By contrast, the rapidly expanding petroleum industry--now producing
approximately 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), behind only Nigeria in
Africa--accounts for 51.7% of GNP, 92% of exports, and 90% of government
revenues. Production is expected to reach 2 million barrels per day by 2008.
Oil production remains largely offshore and has few linkages with other
sectors of the economy, though a local content initiative promulgated by the
Angolan Government is pressuring oil companies to source from local
businesses.

Block Zero, located in the enclave of Cabinda, currently provides one-third
of Angola's crude oil production. Chevron, through its subsidiary Cabinda
Gulf Oil Company, is the operator with a 39.2% share. Sonangol (the Angolan
state oil company), TotalFinaElf, and ENI-Agip are partners in the
concession. Chevron also operates Angola's first producing deepwater section,
Block 14, which started pumping in January 2000 at the rate of 80,000 bpd and
is scheduled to add 180,000 bpd in production by 2006. Production from these
Cabinda fields will be eclipsed by deepwater production further south in the
Kwanza Basin scheduled to come on-line between 2002 and 2010.

TotalFinaElf brought the first Kwanza Basin deepwater blocks on-line with
production from its Block 17 concession that began in February 2002 and now
produces up to 300,000 bpd. Additional sub-fields will begin production in
2006 at the rate of 200,000 bpd. ExxonMobil brought the first of its Block 15
sub-fields on-line in 2003 at the rate of 70,000 bpd. Two additional
discoveries of 3 billion barrels in reserves are producing at a rate of
250,000 bpd each. Both ExxonMobil and TotalFinaElf made new discoveries in
these blocks in 2003. Exploration is ongoing in recently awarded ultra-deep
water concessions and in deep water and shallow concessions in the Namibe
Basin. BP made the first significant ultra-deep water find in its Block 31
concession in 2002 and followed up with two more in 2003. Marathon also
drilled a successful well in its Block 32 ultra-deep water concession. In
August 2005, BP made its 8th discovery in Block 31. BP, which currently does
not produce oil in Angola as an operator, expects to have production of
600,000 bpd by 2007. TotalFinaElf operates Angola's one refinery (in Luanda)
as a joint venture with Sonangol; plans for a second refinery in Lobito with
projected production of 200,000 bpd are moving forward. There are plans to
increase capacity of the Luanda refinery from 40,000 bpd to 100,000 bpd.
Chevron, Sonangol, and other partners are developing a liquefied natural gas
plant at Soyo.

Exports to Asian countries have grown rapidly in recent years, particularly
China. In late 2004, China's state oil company Sinopec bought into Block 18,
securing the deal by offering a $2 billion credit line to the Angolan
Government. Sinopec has also formed a partnership with Sonangol to operate
Block 3/05 (formerly Block 3/80), whose operatorship was transferred from
Total to Sonangol recently. Sonangol will seek to expand its operatorship of
onshore and shallow water blocks. This may include the northern block of
Cabinda's onshore concessions, which since the halt in hostilities with
separatist forces is now open to exploration. Sonangol and Sinopec will also
be eyeing future concession rounds, particularly for 23 blocks in the Kwanza
Basin onshore area and the relinquished parts of Blocks 15, 17, and 18,
currently operated by Exxon, Total, and BP.

Diamonds make up most of Angola's remaining exports. Diamond sales may reach
$900 million in 2005. Despite increased corporate ownership of diamond
fields, much production is currently in the hands of small-scale prospectors,
often operating illegally. Only eight formal sector mines are operating out
of a total of 145 concessions. In June 2005, De Beers signed a $10 million
prospecting contract with the government's diamond parastatal, ending a
4-year investment dispute between De Beers and the government. The government
is making an increased effort to register and license prospectors. Legal
sales of rough diamonds may occur only through the government's
diamond-buying parastatal, although many producers continue to bypass the
system to obtain higher prices. The government has established an export
certification scheme consistent with the "Kimberley Process" to identify
legitimate production and sales. Other mineral resources, including gold,
remain largely undeveloped, though granite and marble mining has begun.

In the last decade of the colonial period, Angola was a major African
agricultural exporter. Because of severe wartime conditions, including
extensive laying of landmines throughout the countryside, agricultural
activities were brought to a near standstill, and the country now imports
about half of its food. Small-scale agricultural production has increased
dramatically over the last three years as internally displaced persons (IDPs)
are returning to the land. Some efforts at commercial agricultural recovery
have gone forward, notably in fisheries and tropical fruits, but most of the
country's vast potential remains untapped. Coffee production, though a
fraction of its pre-1975 level, is sufficient for domestic needs and some
exports. Recently passed land reform laws will attempt to reconcile
overlapping traditional land use rights, colonial-era land claims, and recent
land grants to facilitate significant commercial agricultural development.

An economic reform effort launched in 1998 was only marginally successful in
addressing persistent fiscal mismanagement and corruption. In April 2000,
Angola started an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-monitored program
(SMP). The program lapsed in June 2001 over IMF concerns about lack of
adequate Angolan progress. Under the program, the Government of Angola did
succeed in unifying exchange rates and moving fuel, electricity, and water
prices closer to market rates.

In December 2002 President dos Santos named a new economic team to oversee
homegrown reform efforts. The new team has succeeded in decreasing overall
government spending, rationalizing the Kwanza exchange rate, closing
regulatory loopholes allowing off-budget expenditures, and capturing all
revenues in the state budget. New procedures have been implemented to track
the flow of funds between the Treasury, Banco Nacional de Angola (the central
bank), and the state-owned Banco de Poupanca e Credito, which operates the
budget. The Angolan Government has adopted a new investment code. Concerns
remain about quasi-fiscal operations by the state oil company Sonangol,
continued oil-backed commercial borrowing by the Angolan Government, and
inadequate transparency and oversight in the management of public accounts.
The Angolan commercial code, financial sector law, and telecommunications law
all require substantial revision.

The Angolan Government has reopened dialogue with the IMF. In its published
July 2003 Article IV report, the IMF endorsed four prerequisites to
proceeding with formal negotiations: (1) disclosure of foreign debt data; (2)
timely provision of macroeconomic statistics; (3) full implementation of the
single government account at the Central Bank, and (4) additional dialogue on
oil revenue management. A December 2003 IMF staff mission to Angola found
some progress in these areas. In February 2004, the Angolan Government and
the IMF reached agreement on the steps necessary to conclude SMP
negotiations. As of August 2005, Angola and the IMF remained in discussion on
an IMF program.

Angola is the second-largest trading partner of the United States in
sub-Saharan Africa, largely because of its petroleum exports. U.S. exports to
Angola primarily consist of industrial goods and services--such as oilfield
equipment, mining equipment, chemicals, aircraft, and food. On December 30,
2003, President Bush approved the designation of Angola as eligible for
tariff preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for
2004.

DEFENSE
The Angolan Armed Forces, known by its Portuguese acronym FAA, are headed by
a chief of staff who reports to the civilian minister of defense. There are
three services--the army, navy, and air force. Total manpower is about
140,000. The army is by far the largest of the services with about 130,000
personnel. The navy numbers about 3,000 and operates several small patrol
craft and barges. Air force personnel total about 7,000; its equipment
includes Russian-manufactured fighters and transport planes. The "Casa
Militar," or presidential guard, answers directly to the Office of the
President and is separate from FAA command and control structures.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
From 1975 to 1989, Angola was aligned with the Soviet Union and Cuba. Since
then, it has focused on improving relationships with Western countries,
cultivating links with other Portuguese-speaking countries, and asserting its
own national interests in Central Africa through military and diplomatic
intervention. In 1993, it established formal diplomatic relations with the
United States. It has entered the Southern African Development Community as a
vehicle for improving ties with its largely anglophone neighbors to the
south. In 1997, Zimbabwe and Namibia joined Angola in its military
intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Angolan troops
fought in support of the Laurent and Joseph Kabila governments. It also has
intervened in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) in support of President
Sassou-Nguesso.

Multilaterally, Angola has promoted the revival of the Community of
Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) as a forum for cultural exchange and a
means of expanding ties with Portugal and Brazil. During the peace process,
the government fully cooperated with the UN Mission in Angola (UNMA), which
concluded its mandate in mid-February 2003. Angola concluded a 2-year term on
the Security Council in December 2004.

U.S.-ANGOLAN RELATIONS
The United States established formal diplomatic relations with the Government
of Angola in 1993. Before 1989, U.S.-Angolan relations were defined by the
Cold War. The United States initially supported Holden Roberto's FNLA and
later Jonas Savimbi's UNITA against the pro-Soviet and pro-Cuban MPLA
government in Luanda. Since 1992, the bilateral relationship has steadily
improved. In May 2004, President dos Santos met with President Bush during an
official visit to Washington.

The U.S. Mission in Angola consists of four agencies--the Department of
State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department
of Defense, and the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (HHS/CDC). In addition, a variety of federal
agencies maintain relationships with the Angolan Government through ongoing
projects, including the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of
Transportation, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Energy. In
FY 2003, U.S. Government assistance amounted to roughly $188 million.

USAID's Food for Peace office provided emergency food inputs valued at $30.7
million in FY 2005 to feed vulnerable populations and help stimulate
agricultural recovery, continuing a phasing out period in the past two years
of the emergency program as Angola has stabilized and the emergency has
ended.

USAID's development program in Angola in FY 2005 is consistent with the
country's status as a "fragile state", vulnerable and recovering from an
extended civil conflict. The program budget was $15.3 million, focused on
improving food security, civil society strengthening and democratization,
market-oriented economic analysis and economic reform policy, maternal and
child health, HIV/AIDS prevention, education and voluntary counseling and
treatment. The food security objective, focused on smallholder agriculture,
promotes access to inputs, extension services and training; market linkages;
and revitalized agricultural productivity in Angola. The democracy objective
strengthens constituencies and institutions required for democratic
governance by promoting civil society coalitions, an independent media,
government transparency and accountability, and the groundwork for free and
fair elections. The health objective aims to improve maternal and child
health and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases by
helping communities and institutions to provide necessary health services and
to conduct HIV/AIDS prevention programs. The economic reform objective
fosters economic policy and financial sector reform, business development
services, and credit access for micro-, small, and medium enterprises. USAID
works with a number of international and local nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) and corporate partners in alliances and public-private partnerships.
Additional funding for USAID to strengthen interventions against malaria is
expected in FY 2006, given Angola's inclusion in President Bush's Africa
Malaria Initiative.

Emergency support from HHS/CDC was provided to address the Marburg virus
outbreak in northern Angola, with assistance from the USAID Mission. CDC
personnel joined with the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the
international response to assist with epidemiologic investigation, infection
control, and laboratory diagnosis. CDC personnel in Atlanta provided
laboratory and scientific support to Angola's Ministry of Health and to
countries bordering Angola, establishing a field laboratory in Luanda, Angola
to provide prompt laboratory confirmation of suspect Marburg cases in Angola
and neighboring countries. Additional HIV/AIDS funding for the country of
just over $2 million from HHS/CDC is also available, and helped expand
surveillance, information systems, laboratory and blood bank quality control.

To assist with economic reform, the State Department provided $2.2 million to
work on land tenure, economic policy, and the financial sector. An additional
$60,000 in grants was provided to community development projects. $152,000 in
International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds was provided for
English language training to the Angolan Armed Forces. Professional training
for law enforcement personnel at the International Law Enforcement Academy
(ILEA) in Gaborone, Botswana continued. The Safe Skies for Africa program
provided around $800,000 in equipment and training to the Angolan civil
aviation authority. As part of its public diplomacy program, the Embassy
provided nearly $434,000 in English language training, educational exchanges
and fellowships, and information resource services.

At the same time, the energy-based U.S. trading relationship continues to
expand and spark other ties. One offshoot has been the development of a
Sister City relationship between Lafayette, Louisiana and Cabinda and between
Houston, Texas and Luanda. The Catholic University of Luanda has close links
with a number of American institutions and has received support from the
Angola Educational Assistance Fund, a U.S. non-profit organization organized
by Citizens Energy of Boston. Sonangol has a longstanding program of
educating its professionals in U.S. universities, complementing Chevron's
policy of U.S. training for its own growing pool of Angolan professionals.
Long before oil was discovered, American missionary efforts from the early
19th century established several Protestant churches in the interior, which
also provided much of the schooling that was available in rural colonial
Angola; those historical links now are being revived with exchanges in both
directions.

Principal U.S. Officials
Ambassador--Cynthia G. Efird
Deputy Chief of Mission--James Knight
USAID Director--Diana Swain
Defense Attaché--Lt. Col. Bernard Sparrow

The U.S. Embassy is located at Rua Houari Boumedienne No. 32, Miramar,
Luanda, Angola. International mail: Caixa Postal 6484, Luanda, Angola; Pouch:
Department of State, 2550 Luanda Place, Washington, DC 20521-2550; telephone:
(244) (222) 445-481, 447-028; fax: (244) (222) 446-924, 447-813.