Twenty years ago, one of the longest, most brutal and deadliest wars of the last century ended in Angola. In 27 years, this conflict left nearly 1 million people dead and displaced 4 million. It has also left the country in ruins: In 2002, 60 percent of Angolans did not have access to drinking water and 30 percent of children died before the age of five. Has the West African country recovered from these dark years? We find out in this report by Clément Bonnerot, Dombaxi Sebastiao, Evan Claver and Juliette Dubois.
Angola's civil war began as its colonial master Portugal left in 1975, leaving rival independence movements to battle it out. In the midst of the Cold War, the West African country became the battleground of a proxy conflict between the communist bloc and that of the United States and its allies. On one side was Agostinho Neto's MPLA, supported by the USSR and Cuba, and on the other was Jonas Savimbi's UNITA, supported by South Africa, the US and the UK.
