Angola

International phone code for Angola: +244

Standard EAN-13 (country barcode):  -

Olympic country code: ANG

FIFA code: ANG

Total area: 481,350 sq mi (1,246,699 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 19,088,106 (growth rate: 2.78%); birth rate: 38.97/1000; infant mortality rate: 79.99/1000; life expectancy: 55.29

Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Luanda, 5.068 million

Other large cities: Huambo, 1.098 million

Monetary unit: New Kwanza

National name: Republica de Angola

Current government officials

Languages: Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages

Ethnicity/race: Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico (mixed European and Native African) 2%, European 1%, other 22%

Religions: Indigenous 47%, Roman Catholic 38%, Protestant 15% (1998 est.)

Literacy rate: 70.4% (2011 est.)

Civil war has been the norm in Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975. A 1994 peace accord between the government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) provided for the integration of former UNITA insurgents into the government and armed forces.

A national unity government was installed in April of 1997, but serious fighting resumed in late 1998, rendering hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Up to 1.5 million lives may have been lost in fighting over the past quarter century. The death of Jonas SAVIMBI and a cease fire with UNITA may bode well for the country.

President DOS SANTOS (in office since 1979) pushed through a new constitution in 2010 and elections held in 2012 saw him installed again as president. Angola assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2015-16 term.

In an article from March 2015, the New York Times wrote:
"This is a country laden with oil, diamonds, Porsche-driving millionaires and toddlers starving to death. New Unicef figures show this well-off but corrupt African nation is ranked No. 1 in the world in the rate at which children die before the age of five."