Rich in natural resources (mainly oil, gas, manganese and
diamonds) and with four major ports on its thousands of miles of
southern African Atlantic coastline, the battered country of Angola
nevertheless remains steeped in poverty, disease and social
disarray, lacking infrastructure and littered with millions of
unexploded landmines. Its distressed and dangerous state is a
legacy of more than a quarter of a century of bloody civil war,
which followed independence from Portugal in 1975. The country is
now ostensibly at peace, but conflict still rages in the Cabinda
enclave to the north and signs of recovery from years of strife are
slow to emerge. Hopes can be pinned, however, on the fact that
Angola is Africa's second largest oil exporter, after Nigeria, and
production is set to double during the next five years. Oil will no
doubt bring development. Meanwhile all non-essential travel to
Angola is ill advised, especially beyond the crime-ridden capital,
Luanda. The city itself maintains a few hotels and restaurants,
which struggle to provide reasonable facilities for business
travellers in the face of food shortages and limited basic
services.
