Economy of Angola the skills and knowledge needed to run the country and maintain its well-developed infrastructure. The Angolan government created Sonangol, a state-run oil company, in 1976. Two years later Sonangol received the rights to oil exploration and production in all of Angola. After independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola was ravaged by a horrific civil war between 1975 and 2002. United Nations Angola Verification Mission III and MONUA spent USD1.5 billion overseeing implementation of the Lusaka Protocol, a 1994 peace accord that ultimately failed to end the civil war. The protocol prohibited UNITA from buying foreign arms, a provision the United
1960s in Angola 1960s in Angola The 1960s in Angola were marked by the War of Independence (1961–1975). Portuguese police arrested Agostinho Neto of the MPLA and future President of Angola (1975–1979) in 1960 for the third time. Delegates discussed Cabinda's self-determination in relation to Angola at the 4th Commission of the United Nations on Decolonization in New York in 1962. Cabinda became a member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as the 39th colonized country in 1964. Angola's industries grew by an annual average rate of 17% in the 1960s as ethnic Europeans seized natives' lands and increased mineral production. Mineral