This paper takes a fresh look at the issue of Angola and China's partnership. The study is based upon fieldwork carried out in Angola in 2007 and 2008 and includes numerous interviews with Angolan officials. It describes a pragmatic bilateral partnership, deconstructing the Chinese loans to Angola and documenting the number of Chinese workers in Angola and the impact of their projects.

Christian Aid currently has an exciting opportunity in our Africa Division: As the Angola Programme Officer – Information and Documentation, you will be responsible for facilitating conditions for Angolan civil society to strengthen, through: promoting the access to information; developing documentation systems; and supporting relevant communication and media. You will link Christian Aid’s Information and Communication work in the UK and abroad, with the Angola partners and programme. Closing date for applications: 7 April 2008

There is little awareness on the problem of trafficking in persons, mainly women and children, in Angola, and no laws for cracking down on the growing phenomenon. Paulino Cunha da Silva, head of cooperation and exchange in the Angolan Interior Ministry, admitted at a workshop held in Luanda Tuesday and Wednesday that the country lacks laws to fight trafficking in human beings.

Angola has been ranked worst in the world for tackling child deaths, in a new report by a UK-based charity that compares child deaths to a country's income per person. Oil-rich Angola has a child mortality rate of 260 deaths per thousand - 162 deaths higher than predicted for its economy's size, according to the report, released on Monday.

President José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola has revealed that as soon as he gets the final report from the National Electoral Commission, he will announce the date of next year's legislative elections. However, President dos Santos, who made the assurance at the opening of the XXVth session of the Council of the Republic in the capital Luanda, did not say anything about the presidential elections scheduled for 2009. During the session, a draft report and study on local elections will be presented to the Council.

Since April 2002, most of the four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Angola have resettled, integrated or gone home following the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the governing MPLA and UNITA, which marked the end of 27 years of civil war. In November 2005 the government estimated that there were still some 62,000 IDPs in Angola. Since then, population movements and the level of integration of the displaced have not been monitored.

Human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have accused their government and that of Angola of turning a blind eye to reports of widespread rape and other abuses of DRC migrant workers in neighbouring Angola. “The situation seems to be getting worse but the Angolan and Congolese authorities we have repeatedly approached show no political will to end the situation,” said Floribert Chebeya, who heads Voice of the Voiceless, a DRC NGO.

Maria Antónia* began to wonder about her husband's frequent trips to neighbouring South Africa, especially when he was away for 15 days without contacting her on one occasion. She decided to investigate whether he was going to South Africa to see another woman, but discovered that he was going to get antiretroviral (ARV) medication because he was HIV positive.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said Angolan soldiers have raped, beaten and tortured illegal Congolese migrant workers before deporting them across the border. The French humanitarian group said the rights abuses were occurring in the diamond-rich northern Angolan province Luanda Norte, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo. It described the rapes as "pervasive and systematic".

Angola opposition on Monday denounced what it called government "strategy" to delay legislative elections scheduled for next year. In a statement, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) said that acts of "intimidation" and "increased attempts to curtail individual and collective freedoms in Angola" were evidence of the alleged strategy.

Although the freedom of religion is enshrined in the Angolan constitution, an independent United Nations human rights expert has voiced concern that the right to practise religion or belief is infringed in the Southern African nation.

News has just come through that Angola has also deposited its instrument of ratification bringing the total to 23 countries that have ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Congratulations to all involved.

Brazil has announced that it would nearly double a $1.3 billion credit line to Angola in a move to drum up business for Brazilian firms and help the African nation rebuild its economy. Brazil, keen to expand its influence in Africa and tap into the impoverished continent's vast mineral wealth, has been providing a revolving credit line to oil-rich Angola since 1995.

HIV-positive Angolans suffer a whole spectrum of human rights violations, including discrimination at work, lack of medical treatment and prejudice. The country has a national HIV prevalence of about 2.5 per cent in a population of approximately 16,000,000, although infection rates vary widely by region, with some as low as 1.8 per cent and others as high as 10 per cent.

Angolan authorities hold that a recent oil discovery in the enclave of Cabinda is up to five times greater than announced by the Australian oil company Roc Oil in August. The gigantic oil reserve could lead to onshore production on the disputed territory. In late August, Roc Oil issued an optimistic press release, saying the Australian company had made an oil discovery enabling it to extract 33,000,000 barrels of oil from the onshore Massambala oil field in Cabinda. Roc Oil's shares immediately rose by 16 per cent.

Police in Angola are responsible for persistent human rights violations, with few perpetrators ever brought to justice, Says Amnesty International. A climate of arbitrary arrests and unlawful detention, torture and ill-treatment, deaths in police custody and extrajudicial executions is exposed in a new report. Officers that commit such abuses have almost total impunity.

Human rights groups accused Angola on Wednesday of intimidating their activists ahead of elections next year and urged the European Union to press the African country to stop the harassment. Amnesty International, Global Witness and other NGOs said a firm EU response was needed to ensure groups could continue their work in preparation for the elections.

Members of Angola's main opposition party streamed into a conference hall on Thursday to cast ballots in a leadership race overshadowed by the ghost of Jonas Savimbi, the guerrilla leader who founded the movement. Larger-than-life images of Savimbi, killed by Angolan government troops in 2002, greeted more than 1 000 delegates of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) who gathered in the town of Viana, 20km outside Luanda.

Malteser International, a Maltese relief agency, is looking for a Project Administrator and CBO Trainer to be based in Menongue, Angola. Profession: Administrator, Accountant, or any other profession with background in economics, accountancy, administration within NGOs. Malteser International has been active in Angola since 2002, especially in the area of emergency assistance and strengthening health care facilities in neglected regions of the post war country. Deadline for applications is 1 July 2007.

Between 2002 and 2006, Angola’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached 89.6 percent, a General Programme Performance Report approved by the cabinet council reveals. The fourth extra-ordinary cabinet council meeting chaired by the Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos, approved the report. And in a statement, the council said agriculture, transforming industry and commercial services recorded unexpected growth – more than what has been planned.