Baptist Convention of Angola the northern provinces of Angola (particularly the province of Zaire), the Baptist Convention of Angola has maintained a distinctive multi-ethnic character with an active ministry functioning in ten of the eighteen Angolan provinces since the time of Portuguese colonization. After the war for independence ended in 1975, the Convention had a period of natural stagnation owing to the civil war that dominated the next three decades. In part this stagnation was due to the forced abandonment of the country by the missionary forces from America, Portugal, Denmark and Brazil who, up to that point had led the evangelistic spread of
United Nations Angola Verification Mission II (MPLA), the "de facto" government of Angola, with control of Luanda and most of the country since independence in 1975, and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The mission's original mandate was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 696 (1991), passed on May 30, 1991. The stated mandate was: to verify the arrangements agreed by the Angolan parties for the monitoring of the ceasefire and for the monitoring of the Angolan police during the ceasefire period. The subsequent resolution Resolution 747 (1992), passed March 24, 1992 altered the mandate to include electoral monitoring duties. During