Negotiating humanitarian access in Angola: 1990-2000

For almost forty years, Angola has been trapped in a cycle of wars. Fighting began in
1961, when nationalist movements launched the struggle for independence from colonial
power Portugal. Following independence in 1975, the two main movements – the
Marxist, urban-based Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), and the
rural-based União Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) turned on
each other in a struggle for power, with the support of the Cold War super powers. The
resulting civil war has continued since, with barely a pause.

Since the end of the Cold War, Angola has been through two phases of civil war, from
1989-91 and from 1992-94, and two UN peace processes. The country has now returned
to civil war for the third time in a decade. Over time, the conflict has ceased to be in any
way ideological, and has become instead a struggle for personal enrichment through
control of the country’s mineral resources. Both parties to the conflict have abdicated
responsibility for the civilians under their control, national infrastructure has been
allowed to collapse, and the coping mechanisms of the population have been eroded by
deepening despair.1 In this context, international humanitarian actors have taken on an
increasingly important role.

This study will document the successful attempts, in 1991 and 1993, to negotiate
humanitarian access to both sides of the battle lines in Angola. It will consider the nature
of the negotiations, agreements reached, and the degree of success with which they were
implemented. In the light of lessons learned from these two preceding phases, the study
will then consider the present period, when attempts to negotiate access have reached an
impasse, despite the enormous and urgent need for humanitarian intervention nationwide.