Angola after Live Aid

Despite being one of Africa's major oil producers, which once had one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Angola remains a country ravaged by poverty. Although Angola has been making steady progress in improving social conditions since the end of the war in 2002, the country continues to face daunting challenges in the social sector; youth unemployment and poverty are widespread. As of 2012 it was still categorised in the low human development category and ranked 148th out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index.

Over the past decade, the government has overseen a transition to democracy, although many still complain of a lack of transparency at elections; there have been noticeable moves to crack down on corruption and improve governance in the country.

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Time Line

• 1950s-1961 Nationalist movement developed, Guerrilla War begins.

• 1961 Forced labour abolished after revolts on coffee plantations leave 50,000 dead. The fight for independence is bolstered.

• 1975 The country gains independence from Portugal. This marks the start of the civil war

• 1988 South Africa agrees to Namibian independence in exchange for removal of Cuban troops from Angola.

• 1992 Presidential and parliamentary polls certified by UN monitors as generally free and fair. Dos Santo gains more votes than Savimbi, who rejects results and resumes Guerrilla War

• 1994- SOS Children sets up a community in Lubango, Angola, to provide family based care to children orphaned by decades of conflict.  A vaccination programme is started against meningitis, from which hundreds of people are dying.
  

• 1995 Dos Santos and Savimbi meet and confirm commitment to peace. First of 7,000 UN peacekeepers arrive.

• 1998 Full-scale fighting resumes. Thousands killed in next four years of fighting. SOS Children sets up its first Angolan Children's Village in the capital, Lubango.

• 2002 UN appeals for aid for thousands of refugees heading home after the ceasefire, ending the 26-year long civil war which plagued the country. According to medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres, half a million Angolans are facing starvation.

• 2005 Hundreds are killed by the lethal Marburg virus.  SOS Children opens its second village in Benguela, a coastal area that harboured refugees throughout the Angolan civil war. It houses an SOS Medical and Social Centre, one of three in the country.
  

• 2008 First parliamentary elections for 16 years.

• 2010 Days before the beginning of the African Cup of Nations 2010 which Angola hosts, an attack on the Togo team bus leaves two officials dead and several wounded. SOS Children's Village Huambo opens. An SOS Family Strengthening Programme has in the area since 2008 providing help to those affected by HIV/AIDS. The maternal death rate is recorded as being 450 deaths per 100,000 live births, 24th worst in the world. 51% of the population do not yet have access to a clean drinking water source.
  

• 2011 Medical state of emergency is declared after polio outbreak, despite widespread immunisation programmes.
  

• 2012 Angola launches a $5bn sovereign wealth fund to channel the country's oil wealth into investment projects. Encouragingly, between 1980-2012 life expectancy at birth has risen by 11.3 years.
  

• 2013 The infant mortality rate remains worryingly high (81.75 deaths per 1,000 live births) and Angola is ranked 8th worst in the world.