Angola ceasefire to end decades of civil war

The Angolan government and the Unita rebel movement will today sign a formal ceasefire bringing to an end nearly 30 years of civil war which has claimed around 500,000 lives.

Yesterday Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos promised to hold elections but did not say when they would take place, Portugal’s national radio station Radio Difusao Portuguesa reported.

Speaking publicly in Angola about the civil war for the first time since the death of Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, Mr Dos Santos promised to rebuild the oil and diamond-rich Southwest African country’s infrastructure and create functioning democratic institutions.

Savimbi’s killing by government troops six weeks ago raised hopes of an end to the conflict.

Last year Mr Dos Santos said that he would not stand for re-election in balloting he promised to hold in 2002, but he did not reiterate that position in yesterday’ speech.

His ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola party won the country’s first-ever democratic elections in 1992, following a peace deal signed a year earlier. But Savimbi accused the government of electoral fraud and went back to the bush and restarted the war.

Following Savimbi’s death both sides have held peace talks and signed an agreement to end the hostilities, which will be formalised today.

Under the deal, Unita would become a legal political movement and its 50,000 soldiers and their families would be integrated into Angola’s army and civilian life.

The civil war first erupted after Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975.