Nestling below the equator on Africa’s West Coast, Angola is a neo-imperialist’s dream. American and British oil companies and western diamond salesman are pleased to exploit the country’s wealth.

The Portuguese, thrown out in 1975, missed the boat when it came to tapping Angola’s riches. The nation’s birth should have been royally baptised in new oil. But practically none of the country’s resources have ever trickled down to the people.

Instead they are used to finance an unwinnable war between Eduardo dos Santos’ Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) - Jonas Savimbi’s rebel opposition.

The people have known little peace since they wrestled the country from the grip of their Portuguese overlords. Just before the MPLA, Unita and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) secured victory, they turned their guns on each other.

The scene was set for a Cold War masterpiece: Cuba and the Soviet Union supported the socialist MPLA, South Africa invaded on behalf of Unita - also backed by the US - and to spice the stew, Zaire threw its hat into the ring on behalf of the FNLA.

The MPLA won the day and formed a single-party administration, opposed by Unita. A long, devastating war, cranked up by South Africa and the US, dragged the country down into the sub-Saharan dirt.

In 1992 peace talks led to Angola’s first elections which ratified dos Santos as president and Unita as the opposition.

However, Savimbi did not recognise the result and the war continued. But by 1994 Savimbi was dragged back to the negotiating table, anxious to sign a cease-fire, as the government began to take the ascendency.

The UN moved in - stiffened by British troops - to secure the uneasy peace and to disarm Unita. They failed, standing idly by as both sides violated the peace accord. By the end of last year dos Santos had become exasperated and launched a huge offensive, vowing to crush his rival.

But Unita, which controls areas replete with diamond mines, had restocked its weapons cache.

Unita now controls the majority of Angola’s rural areas while the government holds the major cities. However, MPLA excepted, no one believes the conflict can be won, leaving the people to sink or swim in the violent tide of war.

Since the beginning of the year, Unita atrocities have forced up to 2 million Angolans - out of a population of 12 million - to flee to the relative security of urban refugee camps. Aid agencies say hundreds are dying of starvation and disease each week.

They tell the same pitiful stories of rape, torture and forced assimilation into the Unita armed forces.

The lucky ones escape, leaving their land, homes, jobs and families to embrace a future of starvation and possible death.

Evaristo Bernado, 33, suffering malnutrition, lives on a camp of 28,000 people in Bengo province just outside Luanda, where 10 people - mostly children, are dying of starvation each week.

"I was a farmer. When Unita came they took all the girls into the bush and made them slaves and tried to force the young men to join their army," said Evaristo.

"I knew I had to run away. They stole our goods and rounded up the old men and killed them. Now I have nothing - no life, no future."

Anna Maria, aged 19, lives on the same camp. She was captured by Unita in Kouibaxe and taken to the bush where she was raped and fell pregnant.

"I escaped and walked more than 200 miles to this camp - it took 19 days. I don’t know where my family is, I need clothes and I am afraid for the life of my baby. I want a job - but there is no chance of that."

It is crushing to listen to the stories of the condemned. Jozjoze Alexandre, 28, is starving and emaciated. He has a wife and two young sons garnished in filthy rags.

They live in a squalid polythene tent which stinks of decay. Yet he is grateful - he used to live in a metal cargo container. At least now he sees the sun.

But his smile is grotesque and painful to behold; the camp nurse whispers he will be dead next week.

The two powerful elites battle it out as society disintegrates.

A recent BP-sponsored report concluded that 70 per cent of females and 50 per cent of males are illiterate.

Thousands of itinerants - many the victims of landmines indiscriminately sown by the warlords - beg in the gutters or are forced to sell detritus picked up from the streets to the few that can afford their useless wares.

Orphans drift across the capital, crowding around the occasional foreigner in the hope they may shed a few dollars.

With no jobs, with an eye only for the next scrap of food and no time for school - even if there were any to go to - and anxious to avoid conscription into a war that means nothing to them, people only shrug when asked about the political situation.

There is no history of democracy or of political engagement among the people.

But Angola does have options and many inside the country - with support of friends around the world - are fighting for change.

ACT member, Christian Aid is helping local organisations to build and fund schools, medical facilities and a movement for peace.

Along with other charities in Britain and abroad, its Angola experts say the world community should pressure the MPLA and Unita to guarantee safe access for humanitarian organisations trying to feed the starving.

But even if the government could be persuaded - it has so far remained steadfast in its opposition to such a move - it and Unita could not be trusted to stick to their word.

Furthermore, this would merely help sustain a morally decrepit situation. It would, in the long run, cure nothing.

Leading Angolan opposition journalist Raphael Marques believes the world community should rip the scales from its eyes and accept that dos Santos is not a democrat but a dictator and should be treated as such.

The logical conclusion is that the West should cease trading with Angola’s government, which spends its oil revenues on presidential palaces and burns the rest in the furness of a fruitless war.

But there is scant hope of the world giving up its chance to profit from Angola.

As the British Foreign Office put it: "The MPLA is a democratically-elected government and has the right to legitimate self-defence." And that comes despite the fact the government does not plan to hold any more elections.

So, it is down to the people. First they must be fed. Secondly they must be educated to make political choices and to build an economy which gives the population a stake in society and a reason for maintaining peace.

Christian Aid is sponsoring an organisation - Fonga - which has made the first tentative steps to build peace. Fonga is an umbrella group leading 340 church organisations across Angola who are engaged in the struggle to end the war.

They give displaced people land to farm, they school the young, they teach conflict resolution and provide health care.

Its leader Francisco Tunga Alberto, was the first to sign the ‘Manifesto for Peace’. It has attracted the support of opinion formers, including journalists and army generals.

It started with just six names but within weeks it has attracted thousands of signatories.

It is not an easy option - one general was threatened with death and many journalists who signed were arrested. The government believes anyone who is against the war is pro-Unita.

Fonga faces an uphill struggle. But what is the alternative? Snr Alberto sums it up: "We have had war for decades. The people are starving, they are uneducated and fighting is all they know.

"Peace may take six months - it may take 70 years. But in this land of war, I believe this is the only way."

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In September of 1998 ACT issued an appeal for US $ 2 million for emergency work by Church Action Angola and LWF. Only 50% of this appeal has been funded. ACT plans to revise and extend the duration of this appeal in the near future. ACT members are strongly encouraged to support the work in Angola.

Dominic Nutt, Christian Aid Emergencies Journalist, has just returned from a visit to Angola.

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