Uíge Province

Uige is a province of the African nation of Angola. It has about 1,463,000 inhabitants ² on an area of ​​58,698 km. The provincial capital is Uige ( Carmona called in colonial times ).

Location and Geography

The Uige province is located in the extreme north of Angola, about 200 km northeast of the capital, Luanda. It borders to the north and east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the south by the provinces of Malanje, Cuanza Norte and Bengo and in the west by the province of Zaire.

The largest part of the province is covered with savannah, along the eastern border there are also remnants of tropical rainforest. The most important river is the Cuango, which forms the eastern border. There are two major dams on the southern border to Cuanza Norte.

Population

The population belongs almost exclusively to the Bakongo ethnic group.

Economy

The main cultivation of Uige product is coffee, besides peanuts, cotton and other products are grown. Among the important mineral resources include not only copper, silver and cobalt.

The main road from Luanda to Kinshasa traverses the province from south to north.

History

The Uige province is one of the areas hardest hit by decades of civil war, the country of Angola, since she was a main area of ​​activity of the Frente Nacional da Libertação de Angola ( FNLA ). For this reason, Uige has big problems with the return of escaped populations and the restoration of infrastructure today.

In October 2004, the province was the center of an outbreak of Marburg fever in Angola, where more than 200 people were killed.

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