A republic, Angola is located on the Atlantic coast in southwestern Africa. The small exclave of Cabinda is separated from Angola by a strip of Zaire. Area: 1,246,700 sq km (481,354 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 11,233,000. Cap.: Luanda. Monetary unit: new kwanza, with (Oct. 7, 1994) a controlled rate of 139,294 new kwanzas to U.S. $1 (free rate of 221,548 new kwanzas = £ 1 sterling). President in 1994, José Eduardo dos Santos; prime minister, Marcolino Moco.
Peace talks between the government and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), begun in Lusaka, Zambia, in November 1993, continued in 1994 under the chairmanship of the UN mediator, Alioune Blondin Beye, until UNITA withdrew in September without making it clear whether the withdrawal was permanent. From time to time it was announced that agreement had been reached on key issues. In May it was reported that the contending parties had agreed upon the method of conducting a second round of presidential elections. At other times it was said that both sides had committed themselves to the creation of a joint army and a joint police force. Also, although the government would not accede to UNITA’s request for the portfolios of Defense, Finance, and the Interior, an agreement was said to have been reached regarding certain power-sharing proposals.
Decentralization and the allocation of governorships of provinces were also stumbling blocks. In spite of a number of suggestions by Pres. Frederick Chiluba of Zambia as to how the province of Huambo in particular might be administered, the government remained adamant that it would not acknowledge UNITA’s claim to the province, which the rebels said was the heartland of the Ovimbundu people, from whom they drew much of their support. Accordingly, a treaty signed on November 20 did not seem to substantially alter the fighting or jockeying for position.
The growing despair of finding any solution to Angola’s problems was reflected in the reluctance of foreign donors to provide assistance. By the beginning of the year, less than half the $227 million requested by the UN in June 1993 to provide aid for Angola had been subscribed. On March 14 Pres. José Eduardo dos Santos seized the opportunity offered by the resignation of his finance minister to carry out a major Cabinet reshuffle. On the following day the new finance minister, Alvaro Craveiro, presented a budget in which spending on defense was still the largest component but that donor agencies agreed constituted a step in the direction of reform. Among other provisions, the budget set a target of the annual inflation rate of 260%, to be achieved by December 1994, in comparison with the annual rate registered in December 1993 of 1,840%.
Again and again, however, hopes of any improvement were shattered by recurrent outbreaks of fighting in different parts of the country. In February the minister of assistance and social integration lifted the ban on relief flights to areas under UNITA’s military control in return for guarantees by UNITA that it would permit the World Food Program to conduct its operations in Kuito. On March 22, however, there were reports of major offensives by UNITA’s forces in Benguela, Huila, and Bengo provinces, and in June the town of Kuito again came under heavy artillery and infantry attacks from UNITA troops, which resulted in many more civilian deaths. In the Cabinda exclave in August, a separatist movement calling itself the Front for the Liberation of Cabinda accused government troops of having carried out an attack on a village during which 100 civilians were killed. At the end of the month, government forces recaptured Belize district, and in September they conducted a successful operation against the rebels in Cunhinga in an attempt to free civilians held captive by UNITA.