Football Attack Highlights Risk of Conflict in Oil-Rich Angolan Province

By RWI Legal Advisor Patrick Heller

Today’s brutal shooting attack on the Togolese football team traveling to the Africa Cup of Nations in the oil-rich Angolan province of Cabinda serves as a harsh reminder of the instability that often reigns in enclaves where tremendous oil wealth coexists with chronic underdevelopment.  A purported representative of Cabinda's militant separatist group the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) has claimed initial responsibility for the attack, declaring it "only the start of a series of targeted actions that will continue in all the territory of Cabinda," although few facts about the assailants are yet known. Regardless of who is behind the deadly ambush, the incident represents the latest chapter in Cabinda's difficult history, as well as a major blow to Angolan efforts to transcend violent conflict and establish itself as a powerful emerging economy.

For decades, Angola was beset by a vicious civil war that pitted the MPLA (the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) government against the rebel group UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). Natural resource revenues played a major role in sustaining the conflict, marking Angola as a quintessential example of the links between natural resource extraction and violence. The government retained tight control over a lucrative oil industry, and UNITA gained major revenue from its control over several key diamond-producing regions. Both parties used this resource wealth to fund their war efforts, which had a heavy toll in lost lives and underdevelopment.

Alongside the larger civil war, a smaller but still severe conflict smoldered in Cabinda, the non-contiguous province that was the site the dominant share of the country's early oil production and which remains a center of operation for offshore activities. FLEC and other groups fought for secession, and deadly attacks and counter-attacks were frequent. Militant groups capitalized on widespread dissatisfaction among Cabindan residents, who faced crippling poverty and pollution despite the billions of dollars being extracted from their land and waters.

The government's war with UNITA ended in 2002, and a formal cease-fire with FLEC was signed in 2006. The end of the conflict has coincided with a major boom in oil production in Angola—there has been an increase in output of more than 150% between 2000 and 2008—and one of the most impressive economic growth rates in the world. The government embarked upon a large-scale program of construction and public works expenditure, and saw its opportunity to host the Africa Cup of Nations as a chance to display the "new Angola" to the continent and the world. The government spent millions on new stadiums, including one in Cabinda that was to host some of the world's most prominent football stars.

Besides the obvious tragedy of the loss of human life, the Cabinda attack threatens to strike a serious blow to Angola's reinvention effort. The identity of the perpetrators and their motives remain unknown, but the attack calls attention to the serious and unfinished business of peace-building in Angola. It also underscores the ongoing need to foster trust between state and citizen and for all parties to work to ensure that oil revenue serves as a source of wide-reaching national development rather than tension and violence.

LEARN MORE

• One Dead in Gun Attack on Togo Soccer Team (The New York Times)
• The Cabinda Conflict: Background To The Togo Bus Shooting (Goal.com)
• Football: Cabinda Rebels Claim Togo Football Bus Shooting (AFP)
• ANGOLA: Overview