Discontent clouds Angola’s oil boom

An oil-driven economic boom has made Angola the toast of the town in boardrooms from Houston to Beijing.

But on the outskirts of the African nation’s bustling capital of Luanda, the talk is not of a more prosperous future but rather of a stolen one.
Led by a collection of reformed Marxists and Western-leaning technocrats, Angola’s government is struggling to convince sceptical citizens that it will use the proceeds of vast oil reserves to improve living standards in a country shattered by a brutal 27-year civil war.

Construction cranes dot Luanda’s skyline and dozens of freighters are anchored in its busy port, waiting to load the 1.4 million barrels of oil produced each day in Angola. Texan drawls are now common on the city’s arcing seafront.

But such marvels are a distant dream for the people in Kilamba Kiaxi.

In this slum 7 km (4 miles) outside Luanda, raw sewage seeps into the ditches, garbage piles up on unpaved streets and residents queue, sometimes for hours, at communal taps for water that is often unsafe to drink.

Reuters