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Angola, Congo and Sierra Leone
Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Angola 164 out of 175 countries in Human
Development Index.
Moreover, only a very small number of elite in Angola has amassed enormous fortunes through
oil, diamonds, weapons, and other illicit business deals, while the rest of the people remained
poor, sick, and out of school. Indeed, a 2001 survey of 6,600 Angolan households carried out by
the National Institute for Statistics in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) provided some alarming social statistics on Angola following the three decades of
civil war (United Nations OCHA and IRIN 2002). Data from survey show among other things
that 50 percent of rural children and 40 percent of urban children did not attend school. Two out
of every 10 pregnant women do not see any healthcare provider at all, and more than 50 percent
of mothers give birth without medical assistance. The survey also showed that malnutrition
affected 30 percents of children and Child mortality rate was about 250 per 1,000 live births, the
third worst rate in the world. Moreover, the survey found that 75,000 children aged 0-14 years
have lost one or both parents, about 100,000 of them have lost parents to AIDS. The effects of the
war and AIDS epidemic were the main causes of low life expectancy at birth, which was about
40.2 years in 2001.
CONGO’S PRE-WAR AND WAR TIME SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
Congo, the third largest country in Africa is rich in natural resources and minerals. Industry,
particularly mining, is the main source of revenues and wealth in Congo. The country produces
mineral such as copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, uranium, and other base metals. In the 1980s, the
decade prior to the war, Congo was the fourth-largest producer of industrial diamonds and
diamonds was the largest source of export earnings especially after 1985 when the production of
most of the minerals declined. The decline in the mining sector that started in the 1980s deepened
in early 1990s and by late 1990s, copper production fell to 25,000 tons, which represents a 95 per
cent decrease from its 1985 output level of more than 500,000 tons. Cobalt’ production declined
by 70 percent to about 5,000 tons per year during the same time period, the production of gold
was virtually nil, compared to a capacity of 6 tons per year. Congo, which has a capacity of
360,000 tons per year in Manganese production, discontinued its production in the late 1990s.
(IMF country report No 01/123)
In mid 1990s, few years prior to the war, diamonds provided about 50 per cent of export revenues
in Congo, followed by copper and cobalt, which together, contribute to about 20% of export
revenues as shown in Table B2. The agricultural sector was in far better shape than the industrial
sector not only in the 1980s but also in the 1990s. The agricultural sector had a growth rate of 2.5
% in the 1980s compared with 0.9% in the industrial sector as presented in Box 1. Moreover, the
industrial sector had a negative growth of 11.7% in the 1990s while the agricultural sector
continued its positive trend with a growth rate of 2.9%. According to the World Bank, Congo’s
agricultural sector, which employs about two-third of the labor force, accounted for about 58% of
GDP in 1999 (World Bank WDI 2001). Coffee, palm oil, rubber, cotton, sugar, tea, and cocoa
constitute the main cash crops in Congo. While cassava, plantains, maize, groundnuts, and rice
are part of the food crops.
Congo experienced a slow growth in real GDP per capita in the 80s and a negative growth of
5.1% in the 90s mostly due to the war. Congo’s dismal pre-war economic conditions in spite of
its large endowment of natural resources were mainly due to widespread corruption, misdirected
economic and financial policies, and the diversion of public resources for personal gain,
especially during the Mobutu’s regime. Social indicators were also very low prior to the war with
higher level of poverty and inequality in the late 80s and early 90s. In addition, the country was
plague with higher inflation rates that started in early 1990s and reached a record 638.2% in
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