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 Santos and Savimbi signed a peace treaty in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 31, 1991, officially ending the 16-year civil
war [in Angola]. It lasted only 18 months before fighting flared up between UNITA rebels and the government, which the US now recognized after years of backing the
UNITA [November 1992]. A month before [September 1992], UNITA had lost parliamentary elections that the United Nations deemed free and fair; Savimbi declared them fraudulent. UNITA resumed fighting and gained control of much of the countryside. On November 20, 1994, both sides signed a truce that gave limited power, through government concessions, to the rebels. Because UNITA later balked, the UN Security Council voted (1997) to impose sanctions on it. The government and UNITA accused each other of responsibility for the massacre of more than 200 persons in Lunda Norte province in July 1998. To put pressure on UNITA to implement the 1994 truce (Lusaka Protocol), government forces launched offensives
against the rebel strongholds of Andulo and Bailundo in December 1998; UNITA responded by taking the northern town of Mbanza Congo in late January 1999.
The death of insurgent leader Jonas Savimbi in 2002 and a subsequent cease-fire with UNITA may bode well for the country. |
