In order to understand something of the current situation it helps to take a look at Angola's history.
Angola is a tropical country, but much less warm and humid than for instance the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is to the north of Angola. It used to be a Portuguese colony, but the people revolted and in 1975 the Portuguese left. But a time of wars broke out which lasted no less than 42 years. Only in 2002 peace came, but the country was in ruins. More than 1 million people died, 4.3 million internal refugees, 400 million refugees in the Congo and Zambia, countless were malnourished and education has not developed in most of the years of war. Railways, bridges and roads have been totally destroyed. The country was full of mines that had been laid in a 30-year period.
The people suffered terribly and the damage is enormous. The first years after the war many aid organisations were still working in Angola, but since 2006 most of them withdrew and the people of Angola had to rely on the help from the government. In recent years many roads and bridges between the different provinces have been repaired and slowly education and health care began to develop. But transparency in the administration of the country has not yet been developed and Angola still has a long way to go.
Since oil can be extracted in a different way in the United States and therefore they no longer buy part of their oil in Angola, the oil price dropped worldwide and for Angola it means that they get considerably less money for their oil. This resulted in a drop of oil income of 75%. Because the economy is mainly built on the income of the oil, this means a huge decrease of Angola's income.
