Angola profile.
One of Africa's major oil producers, Angola is nonetheless one of the world's poorest countries. It is striving to tackle the physical, social and political legacy of a 27-year civil war that ravaged the country after independence. The governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the rebel group Unita were bitter rivals even before the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The Soviet Union and Cuba supported the then-Marxist MPLA, while the US and white-ruled South Africa backed Unita as a bulwark against Soviet influence in Africa. Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975 After 16 years of fighting that killed up to 300,000 people, a peace deal led to elections. But Unita rejected the outcome and resumed the war, in which hundreds of thousands more were killed. Another peace accord was signed in 1994 and the UN sent in peacekeepers. But the fighting steadily worsened again and in 1999 the peacekeepers withdrew, leaving behind a ...