Angola

**Special note: Visitors are advised against all but essential travel to Angola, in particular the Uige Province, due to the outbreak of the highly contagious Marburg virus. The main focus of the disease is in the northern city of Uige, but people from that city have died in hospitals in Luanda, Cabinda and Kwanza Sul Province. So far 215 people have died. International experts are working with the local Ministry of Health to combat the disease. The disease is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of the sick; all visitors are recommended to take extra hygiene precautions and to contact a doctor at the first sign of fever or feeling unwell.**

Rich in natural resources (mainly oil, gas, manganese and diamonds) and with four major ports on its thousands of miles of southern African Atlantic coastline, the battered country of Angola nevertheless remains steeped in poverty, disease and social disarray, lacking infrastructure and littered with millions of unexploded landmines. Its distressed and dangerous state is a legacy of more than a quarter of a century of bloody civil war, which followed independence from Portugal in 1975. The country is now ostensibly at peace, but conflict still rages in the Cabinda enclave to the north and signs of recovery from years of strife are slow to emerge. Hopes can be pinned, however, on the fact that Angola is Africa's second largest oil exporter, after Nigeria, and production is set to double during the next five years. Oil will no doubt bring development. Meanwhile all non-essential travel to Angola is ill advised, especially beyond the crime-ridden capital, Luanda. The city itself maintains a few hotels and restaurants, which struggle to provide reasonable facilities for business travellers in the face of food shortages and limited basic services.

Travel guide content sourced from wordtravels.com