Angola was on Wednesday celebrating five years since the end of its brutal, three-decade-long civil war, with veteran President Jose Eduardo dos Santos identifying a ”rebirth of hope” in the oil-rich nation.
A national holiday has been declared to mark the anniversary of the signing of a peace accord on April 4 2002 between the government and Unita rebels, which drew the line on a 27-year conflict that claimed half-a-million lives.
The main celebrations were due to be held in the northern province of Cabinda, where a regional insurgency has been dampened by another peace deal signed by the government and the main rebel group there last year.
Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos was set to deliver the main speech to participants in the celebrations before the national football team took on the Republic of Congo in a friendly international in Cabinda.
Services of thanksgiving were being held in churches across the country, with the main event taking place in a sports stadium in Luanda.
In a speech to a cross-party seminar designed to draw up a so-called national consensus agenda, which wrapped up on Tuesday night, the president said that the country is now entering a new era.
”Moments of uncertainness and mistrust between ourselves have been put behind us,” said Dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979. ”There is rebirth of hope, self-esteem and trust between everyone. We desire a safe future that guarantees justice, well-being and prosperity.”
Angola’s economy is experiencing a major boom, mainly thanks to a sharp rise in oil exports, but the benefits have failed to trickle down so far to the general population, 70% of whom live on less than $2 a day.
Reverend Luis Ngimbi, president of the Council of the Christian Churches in Angola, said an end of hostilities on its own was not enough for the country, which only won independence in 1975 to forge a sense of unity.
”We will pray for spiritual and social peace which can make Angola a real country,” Ngimbi said as he arrived to officiate at the service at the stadium in Luanda. — Sapa-AFP