United Nations
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Backdrop: United Nations in Angola

In February 1995 the United Nations (UN) authorized a 7,000-member peacekeeping force for Angola to monitor a fragile cease-fire in that country’s long-running civil war. Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975 heralded a conflict between the new nation’s two foremost political movements, the rebel National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the country’s post-independence, Marxist rulers, the Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA). Although the two sides reached a peaceful settlement in 1991, fighting broke out again the following year following a disputed election, and only came to an end with the UN-mediated cease-fire in November 1994.

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United Nations in Somalia

Soldiers of a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force were in Somalia from 1992 to 1995, protecting international relief organizations that were there to distribute food. Civil war, drought, and starvation have ravaged the country since the 1970s, severely disrupting its agricultural system. Even in the best of times, arid Somalia has difficulty growing enough food to meet domestic demand.