Watch Assunção Afonso dos Anjos, the minister of external relations for the Republic of Angola, speak about Angolan development and U.S.-Angola relations.

Assunção Afonso dos Anjos, the minister of external relations for the Republic of Angola, speaks about Angolan development and U.S.-Angolan relations.

Listen to Assunção Afonso dos Anjos, the minister of external relations for the Republic of Angola, speak about Angolan development and U.S.-Angola relations.

Jamie Ekern of CFR's Center for Preventive Action discusses her observations of the Angolan parliamentary elections from Luanda.

Angolans headed to the polls on September 5 for their first election in sixteen years. The country is in the midst of a remarkable oil boom, but average Angolans remain among the world's poorest.

Angola, Africa's top oil producer, is flush with money. Yet wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a very few, leaving the bulk of the population in poverty.

This module features teaching notes and supplemental resources for Toward an Angola Strategy: Prioritizing U.S.-Angola Relations, a report of an Independent Commission sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations Center for Preventive Action. This report argues that it is in the interest of the United States to help develop a sustainable and lasting peace in Angola.

This transcript records the CFR rollout meeting of the Center for Preventive Action's Independent Commission Report on Angola.

“Few African countries are more important to U.S. interests than Angola. The second-largest oil producer in Africa, Angola’s success or failure in transitioning from nearly thirty years of war toward peace and democracy has implications for the stability of the U.S. oil supply as well as the stability of central and southern Africa,” finds a Council-sponsored Independent Commission in a report produced by the Center for Preventive Action, Toward an Angola Strategy: Prioritizing U.S.-Angola Relations.

West Africa’s large oil reserves have attracted especially keen interest from the United States and China, but prompt familiar concerns about the “resource curse.”

This report argues that Angola deserves priority attention in the formulation of U.S. foreign, national security, and economic policies, particularly in the design of policy toward Africa. This report is also available in Portuguese.

According to this Independent Task Force, among the most daunting long-term issues confronting Angola now is the resettlement of IDPs and refugees. The United Nations has been involved in the process of repatriation. A collaborative effort between the Angolan government, the UN, NGOs, and business interests will be needed in order to help make return sustainable.