Angola: Still Waiting for Peace

The world has become all too accustomed to things in Angola falling apart. Accounts of dreadful human suffering, death and destruction over the last thirty-odd years have been interspersed with only brief glimmers of hope which have quickly been snuffed out. Whereas outsiders have the luxury of speculation about a basket case of distant strangers, life for some thirteen million Angolans is a daily struggle amid conflict, uncertainty and economic and social crisis.

The World Today Updated 26 October 2020 6 minute READ

David Simon

Angolans are exhausted by war and desperate for peace. They are also tired of the successive cycles of talks and abortive peace deals. Little wonder, then, that there is a growing civil society peace movement in Luanda and other major cities, pressing for a more broadly based convention and peace process.

Neither the MPLA-dominated Government of National Unity and Reconstruction (GURN) nor Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA is felt to have the interests of most Angolans at heart. There is evidence of some fresh thinking within the country but the movement is still nascent and has yet to define a programme clearly. Government responses suggest some unease and considerable uncertainty as to how to deal with this new phenomenon.

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