Huambo | City Gallery - Fotos da Cidade

[StormShadow]

Huambo is the capital of Huambo province in Angola, Africa. The city is located about 220 km E from Benguela and 600 km SE from Luanda. The city's last known population count was 225,268.


Overview

Huambo is a main hub on the Caminho de Ferro de Benguela (CFB) (the Benguela Railway) that runs from the port of Benguela to the Congo border.

Airport: Nova Lisboa Airport.

The civil war halted Huambo's development and destroyed a great part of its infrastructure, but the advent of peace in 2002 brought a new era of reconstruction and regeneration. Before the war it had had some important food processing plants, and served as the main exporting point for the Province's considerable agricultural wealth. Huambo was also known by its numerous educational facilities, especially the Chianga Agricultural Research Institute (currently part of the Faculty of Agricultural Science).


Colonial history

Huambo was founded on 8th August 1912 by Portuguese General José Mendes Norton de Matos. In 1928 it was renamed Nova Lisboa (New Lisbon), indicating that the colonial administration intended making of it at some point the Capital of the colony. By the 1920s Huambo was one of the main economic engines of Angola. After independence in 1975, it was given back its original name.


Modern history

Huambo had a population of 203,800 in 1983, but became the site of a brutal battle during the bloody civil war between the government and UNITA from independence until the death of rebel UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. The city was besieged, extensively damaged, and its civilians were massacred en-masse or fled the city.

Upon independence in 1975, Savimbi declared Huambo to be a separate republic within the nation. However, with the help of Cuban military expedition, the MPLA government retook the city on 8 February, 1976. However, the surrounding area remained in the UNITA camp.

By mid 1976 the Cuban troops had established their most important structures in Huambo town in the area of San Pedro, Lufefena and Cruzeiro, and strong garrisons in most of the other municipal capitals and main towns, but UNITA had the control of nearly all of the territory in between.

Displaced people started concentrating in towns, seeking physical protection and humanitarian assistance. In this context, one of the first humanitarian agencies to arrive in the Province of Huambo was the ICRC (1979). In 1984 the conflict escalated dramatically, and so did displacement into towns. A major relief operation was launched in the capitals of the Central Plateau and in a good number of the municipalities still accessible by plane. By then the largest part of the roads were controlled by UNITA and heavily mined.

In May 1991 a peace agreement was reached between the Government and UNITA. United Nations agencies and NGOs progressively moved in between mid 1991 and 1992. The situation gradually improved and general elections were called for in September 1992. But trouble set off as soon as the results of the polls were disseminated. Unrest arrived to Huambo very rapidly, as UNITA considered the Province in a way as their political shrine. They concentrated in the town most of their leaders and a large section of their troops soon after the defeat in the elections was made public.

The city would still be formally under the control of the Government, but tension progressively built-up due to increasing violent actions involving UNITA militia. By the end of 1992 all foreign aid agencies had withdrawn from Huambo. UNITA took full control of the town in the course of a horrendous street-to-street battle that started just after Christmas 1992 and reached its climax by mid-January in the following year. Violent combats in and around Huambo continued still for 55 days, until the Government troops retired and UNITA gained full control of the city. Most other cities in the Central Plateau were occupied too by UNITA at the time, through no less violence and massive destruction. The armed conflict flared up again in August 1994. A large offensive gave back to the Government the control of Huambo on 9 November, and soon after all other provincial capitals. The UNITA headquarters was then moved to Jamba in the province of Kuando Kubango.

The war ended formally on November 20, 1994 with the signature of the Lusaka Protocol. To a great extent this step meant a move towards normalcy, and was received in Huambo with moderate optimism. UNITA moved again its headquarters soon after signing the protocol, this time to Bailundo, some 50 Km north of the provincial capital. This relocation raised serious concerns among most observers.

By 1995 free transit of people and goods was quite re-established in the Province. By the end of the year the United Nations peacekeepers (UNAVEM III) had been deployed too in Huambo, following the provisions of the Lusaka peace protocol. 1996 and 1997 were years of relative improvement of the living conditions of civilians in Huambo, although return movements were only moderate, reconstruction slow and commercial activities didn’t regain their past vigor.

After the United Nations Security Council enforced sanctions against UNITA (29 October 1997) because of delays in the implementation of the Lusaka protocol and reluctance to demilitarize and turn over its strongholds, insecurity in Huambo increased gradually, especially in the second half of 1998. I n early December the Government launched an offensive aimed at taking the last strongholds held by UNITA in Huambo and Kuito, this new war outbreak soon extending to other regions of the country. Huge population displacements started once again from the rural areas to Huambo, Kuito and Caala. Large camps of internally displaced people were then installed in these cities as the Humanitarian Community was forced to retire out of UNITA-controlled areas, withdrawing completely by the end of the year and concentrating in Huambo, Caala and, later, Ukuma.

The security situation got extremely volatile. As Huambo and other major towns in the Plateau were being shelled from Bailundo and other positions still in possession of UNITA, two Hercules C130 aircraft chartered by the United Nations with 23 people on board were shot down over Vila Nova (Dec. 26 and Jan. 2, 1999), as they were trying to evacuate to Luanda the last remains of the UNAVEM III mission in Huambo.

The Government took again the town of Bailundo in October 1999. Londuimbali, Vila Nova and some other large towns in the Province were already under the rule of the Government, and in December 1999 the administration of the state had been reestablished in all municipal capitals. In this period the conventional war that the Province had known gave way to guerrilla warfare, UNITA still controlling most rural areas and randomly striking military or police installations of the Government, and often civilian communities too.

The exodus of civilians into Huambo and Caala experienced a new boom. In early 2000 there were over 25,000 displaced people in the village of Caala, and over 40,000 in Huambo town. As international sanctions tightened around UNITA, their military actions in Huambo got more frequent and destructive, reaching a peak of violence by the end of 2000.

In October 2001 the Government launched a renovated offensive against UNITA from the North and the South of the Province, combining this time strict military action with what were known as operações de limpeça, literally, cleansing operations which consisted in removing from rural areas large groups of population which were subsequently forced into a few, specific concentration points. The idea behind this strategy was depriving the guerrilla of the potential support it may still find in the villages they formerly controlled in the bush, making their natural habitat unlivable. In the short term this resulted in renovated pressure over available resources in safe areas of the Province, and in many cases in the death by starvation of groups trapped by the conflict or impeded to reach any of those zones. This point probably represents the climax in the hardship the rural civilian population went through in the Province of Huambo for the duration of the war.

The death of Jonas Savimbi in February 2002 and the subsequent signature of a new cease-fire brought back tranquility to the Province and set the conditions for the present ongoing peace process and the beginning of an era of development.

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A home









































Road view somewhere between Kaala from Huambo
image hosted on flickr

[StormShadow]

image hosted on flickr


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park in huambo
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street in huambo
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caala just outside huambo
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farm by a lake in huambo
image hosted on flickr

[StormShadow]

Road construction in Angola (photos that I could grab hold of...only a fraction of what is truly going on)[/SIZE]

New road between Caála and Huambo (pic taken August 2007)...but the road is still under construction

Huambo Caála (more than 70 km apart)

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


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image hosted on flickr

[StormShadow]

This is "Barragem do Gove" in Huambo (pic taken in June 2007)





region near Huambo (taken September 2005)





















just outside huambo city





train from huambo

[BlackLion]

Huambo. What a tragedy. But it's really refreshing to see that reconstruction is going on in the heart of Angola. Perhaps one day Huambo can return to the legendary status it enjoyed in colonial times when it was proposed to be the capital of not just Angola but of the entire Portuguese empire. There is definitely a lot of work to do in this region of Angola.

[Matthias Offodile]

Huambo. What a tragedy. But it's really refreshing to see that reconstruction is going on in the heart of Angola. Perhaps one day Huambo can return to the legendary status it enjoyed in colonial times when it was proposed to be the capital of not just Angola but of the entire Portuguese empire. There is definitely a lot of work to do in this region of Angola.

Blacklion, let´s be optimistic!..if I had the power I could turn back time for a number of countries and install good leaders. If I had three wishes free for Africa....

I would place a combination of Nelson Mandela and Singapore like political figures at the helm of Nigeria (after independence), Côte d´ivoire (after 1993) Angola (after independence)...but these are just dreams and wishes.

Anyway, regarding Huambo I think that it will come back on its feet although it might take 10 years or more.

[Matthias Offodile]

Before continuing we recent pics, here are some pre-war pics of that fabulous city 1970´s

train station



construction









a college





construction





























commercial palace

[StormShadow]

Huambo Classics - Huambo 1969

[ekuikui]

I came yesterday from Angola, after spending 5 days in Luanda and about 40 in the rest of the country, specially in Huambo, i would say that im happy with what i saw. It seems like Huambo is being built to be a back up or even take over from Luanda, the cosntructions are not in the same level as in Luanda but it is being very well done and with no rush. I had a chance of having a close look to what the local goverment is doing and i was impressed, every single day there are 800-1000 proposals of investiment. There are 3 hotels being built in the city, the roads and public lights are all ok. The roads to another provinces are about 70% done, and the trains from Benguela are expected by 16 of August. Angolan and chinese seem to be sleepless when it comes to work, better than words some few pictures i could take will say what i actually mean.

[Barragon]

Good news it's great to see that Huambo is getting better are those bullet filled buildings still there?

Dying to see those pics

[Matthias Offodile]

Ekuikui, this sounds very good!

We are looking forward to your pics!

Finding RECENT pictures about Huambo on the internet is next to impossible, so we are all very happy to have your visual contribution here.

[ekuikui]

Originally Posted by Barragon

Good news it's great to see that Huambo is getting better are those bullet filled buildings still there?

Dying to see those pics

there's a project called "cimento e tinta" which aims to change the image of all the buildings in the city, it is currently undergoing and it has already changed a lot of the city's face.

after the roads the side ways are priority



the place where a 4 stars hotel will be built


more to come

it already looks nice

[Blue sun]

Great work.... ekuikui.... It is really good to see Huambo moving forward and may it persist. O and if you do have more fotos, please would like to see em...

[ekuikui]

note the newly refurbished glass building on the left:

[Matthias Offodile]

GREAT PICS!!! Thanks a lot for uploading....I enjoy them , keep them coming, please!

[skytrax]

again nice pics!

[Blue sun]

Cool.

[ekuikui]

This garden separates uptown (mainly a residencial area with lots of T3 and T4 styled houses) from downtown (a more comercial zone with tall buildings), the garden itself has an artificial lake, a greenhouse, and recreation areas, studies for the refurbishment of park and lake have already been done and a company has already being pointed to do so. It will be part of a square which will include an ultra moderm library (already U/C), an ecological house, a cultural centre, the already built multipurpose pavillion, theres also an hotel to be totally refurbushed (it has already been bought by a company), and many other other attractions.
This "green" square will change the city's face for the better, in old times it used to be the Mecca of students and lovers.



PARTIAL VIEW OF THE HOTEL









INSIDE THE PAVILLION





THE U/C LIBRARY



NORTON DE MATOS PARK











THE CULTURAL CENTRE, i've seen the renders for this project and it was impressive!

[Barragon]

Belas fotos O centro Cultural vai ser enorme

[skytrax]

e ainda bem. O país precisa de investir muito na cultura.