Huambo, Angola

After nearly 20 years of civil war, and disputed elections in 1992, UNITA opposition party leader Jonas Savimbi seized Huambo and established it as his capital before returning to the bush to fight. What was initially touted as a move to "liberate" this former colonial metropolis from government forces resulted in the entrapment of innocent civilians ringed in the city and cut off from essential resources to survive by hostile forces on both sides of the conflict. As a result, Huambo was the scene of some of the most intense suffering of the war. In a March 6, 2003 article The Economist called the battle for Huambo "one of the goriest in the world." After months without electricity and running water, helicopter pilots described the smell of rotting corpses at 1,500 meters. Today Huambo's resilient population moves on, while Chinese, Portuguese, Jordanians, Mauritanians and others seize reconstruction opportunities. Like many other cities in this country, Huambo is well on its way to having a new face.

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