Angola

Angola is located on the south-central Atlantic coast of Africa and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. The country is rich in oil, diamonds, and other natural resources. A Portuguese colony from the 1600s until 1975, Angola is nominally a democratic republic, but the country has seen little peace or security. The civil war that broke out upon independence lasted for nearly 30 years and killed an estimated 1.5 million Angolans. Another 4 million were displaced by the fighting.

Angola's population is estimated at 12.1 million (2006), with the population growing at 2.45 percent annually. Life expectancy at birth is an abysmal 37.47 years for men and 39.83 years for women. Infant mortality is 185 deaths per 1,000 live births. Maternal mortality is 1,700 per 100,000 live births. Poverty is rampant, with most of the population living on less than $ 1 per day. Chronic malnutrition affects 40 to 50 percent of the population.

Although there are 90 different ethnicities in Angola, most of the population belongs to three main Bantu-language groups: the Ovimbundu (37 percent of the population), the Mbundu (25 percent), and the Bakongo (13 percent). Two percent of the population are mestiços, or of mixed white and African heritage, and 1 percent is white, most of them Portuguese who decided to stay after independence in 1975. The dominant religion is Roman Catholic, with several evangelical groups making inroads in recent years. Many Angolans also follow the indigenous religions and beliefs of their tribes.

Angola has a land area of 772,954 square miles (about twice the size of Texas) and has a 1,000-mile-long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. The major geographic features are a narrow coastal plain that rises quickly to a high interior plateau. Lying close to the equator, Angola has a typically tropical climate, with a dry, cool season followed by a lengthy hot, rainy season. Rainfall in northeastern regions can average 59 inches a year. Flooding is common on the plateau.

Prior to the civil war, Angola was able to meet its own food needs, and even export a surplus. Today, only 2.65 percent of the land is arable and overuse has depleted soil quality. A large percentage of the population faces food insecurity. Deforestation of the rainforest has led to the loss of biodiversity and desertification; soil erosion has caused buildup of silt in major waterways. Most of the country suffers from a lack of potable water. Poor sanitation, lack of clean water, and inadequate food supplies leave Angolans at high risk for a variety of bacterial and viral diseases, including diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, African trypanosomiasis (also called sleeping sickness), meningococcal meningitis, yellow fever, leprosy, and schistosomaisis.

In spring 2005, Angola suffered a severe outbreak of the Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever closely related to Ebola. Medical officials recorded 237 deaths from 261 reported cases before it was brought under control. In spring 2006, the country suffered its first cholera outbreak in more than a decade, and programs are underway to control the reemergence of the disease.

...