Angola: Plenty of Oil, a Forgotten War And New Hope

The tiny Cabinda enclave accounts for close to 65 per cent of Angola’s oil, amounting to more than 80 per cent of the country’s revenues. But the province, which has fought for three decades to secede, remains one of the poorest in Angola. An agreement signed this week could determine its destiny

Without Cabinda, Angola would have no oil to talk about, but thanks to the tiny enclave, the country is sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest oil producer after Nigeria. So it can be understood why Cabinda secessionists have fought government forces for autonomy for three decades.
It does not matter that Cabinda, which is only 7,300 sq km, is separated from the rest of Angola by some 60 km wide strip along the lower Congo river and wedged between Congo Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that’s where Angola’s oil wells are located.

It was therefore a great relief when finally a peace deal was signed on Tuesday this week between the government and separatists to end a conflict that’s often dubbed “Angola’s forgotten war”, one that began soon after Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975 and has forced about 400,000 of Cabinda’s estimated 600,000 population to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. Cabinda was formerly a Portuguese protectorate that was incorporated into Angola when the Portuguese withdrew from both territories in 1975.

The deal preserves Angola’s territorial unity while granting a “special status” to the oil-rich northern province. The special status gives the Cabinda provincial government additional powers, including greater control over the region’s economy and other functions normally reserved for central government.

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