Cunene Province


Cunene is a province of Angola. It has an area of 87,342 km² and a population of 990,087 in 2014.

Overview

is the capital of the province; it was previously known as Vila Pereira d’Eça. Ondjiva is the only city in this province. Municipalities in this province include Cahama, Kuroka, Kuvelai, Kwanhama, Namakunde, Ombadja, and Ondjiva.
The distance from Ondjiva to Luanda is 1424 km and to Lubango is 415 km.
The Cunene River gave its name to the province.
Cunene lies north of the Cunene River, which forms the border between Angola and Namibia. Cunene is traversed by the northwesterly line of equal latitude and longitude.
During World War I the region was the scene of fighting in 1914–15. The German campaign in Angola resulted in Germany's temporary occupation of the area.
The inhabitants of the Province are overwhelmingly Ovambo pastoralists. Since the 1960s, they have been under pressure first from white settlers, and after independence from high-ranking military officers and politicians, who acquired large extensions of land which the Ovambo need for the transhumance of their cattle. The ecological, economic and social advantage of pastoralism over ranching has been known since the 1970s, but has not been sufficiently taken into account in policy making.

List of Governors of Cunene

NameYears in office
Kundi Paihama * 1976–1979
Capt Ary da Costa * 1979–1982
Pedro Mutindi * 1983–2008
António Didalelwa 2008–2016
Kundi Paihama 2016–2018
Vigílio da Ressurreição Bernardo Adriano Tyova 2018–

In , UNITA under Jonas Savimbi assists Alex Mason and Jason Hudson to find the CIA remnants under Woods held by the MPLA and the Cubans.