Cabinda

Cabinda, exclave of Angola, south-central Africa, bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Republic of the Congo, and on the east and south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It constitutes an administrative district of Angola. The capital and chief town is Cabinda, which has a small port on the Bele River. The district has extensive tropical rainforests; its products include timber and phosphates. Offshore petroleum production has been important since the late 1960s. In the 1970s Malembo was developed as the exclave's deep-water port.

An active political and military movement campaigning for the exclave to be granted autonomy has existed in Cabinda since Angola declared independence from Portugal in 1975. Originally known as the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), the movement engaged in a bloody guerrilla war against the Angolan government, with the support of the neighbouring DRC. FLEC later split into three factions, and continued to press the central government for independence. In July 2006 a tentative peace agreement was reached between the two sides, aiming to put an end to the violence that has ravaged the region for more than 30 years. Population 152,100 (1992).