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Old 3rd Oct 2008, 23:14
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Matari
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
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The Cabinda enclave has seen plenty of violence in the past but it has diminished recently as the government and the local separatists (FLEC) have hammered out a peace agreement.

http://www.cabinda.net/

Small scale violence still occurs, but nothing on the scale of early and mid-eighties.

I worked in Malongo for PHI then, and times were interesting indeed. The Cubans guarded our facility (bet that makes Airship and Sunray's head spin), and we had great times trading beer and cigarettes over the back fence with them. Later, one of our mechanics was taken hostage and held in the forest for months.

Some South Africans tried to sabatoge the facility at one point (only to be killed or captured, and tried in Luanda). A media circus including the American eternal activist Jesse Jackson followed--man that guy can get around--but that is for another thread).

FLEC in the north, and Unita in the south, are mostly quiet, and consequently Angola resembles a typical corrupt, malfunctioning African oil state these days.

Weather is pleasant mostly, and rainy season makes navigating the storms fun. Biggest danger would be from malaria...take the pills. Oh, that and the bat guano droppings raining on your head while waiting in the chow line...
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