Angola's 1975-2002 civil war pitted three ethnic groups against each other: the Mbundu, represented by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA); the Bakongo, represented by the militant group National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA); and the Ovimbundu, represented by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). In the conflict between the FNLA and MPLA, the MPLA benefitted from a number of advantages that made the outcome relatively certain. However, the Ovimbundu were a far stronger foe than the FLNA. UNITA was able to field an army from a larger ethnic base than the Mbundu. The MPLA needed to expand its zone of control in order to weaken the UNITA without fighting the group in Ovimbundu territory. The solution was to seize northeast Angola's Lunda provinces. Though located outside the Ovimbundu core, these provinces were central to the UNITA's war-funding strategy. Securing weapons is expensive in a country with little modern infrastructure and few industrial plants, particularly without access to capital or a decent port. UNITA sought to obtain funds by establishing control of Angola's alluvial diamond deposits in the Lunda provinces. Alluvial diamonds can be mined by hand with low-skilled labor, and the high value-to-weight ratio of diamonds made them ideal for smuggling out of the country in exchange for much-needed war materiel. But since alluvial diamonds, by definition, lie close to the surface, they are in limited supply. So diamonds became harder to find as the war continued, and UNITA forces had to spread themselves thinly in search of them. This made UNITA fighters more vulnerable to increasingly well-equipped MPLA forces, and the UNITA quickly fell into combat ineffectiveness. By the early 2000s, MPLA forces were able to sweep across the poorly protected swaths of the Lunda flatlands, scattering and destroying UNITA forces. Furthermore, the region still had an abundance of diamonds embedded in kimberlite geologic formations, which require more skill and equipment to unearth. This granted the MPLA a new income stream that only they — with higher capital capacity and access to Western markets — could tap. With the loss of the Lunda provinces, the UNITA lacked goods to barter. After the death of the UNITA's leader, by 2002 the group entered peace talks with the MPLA and the war ended. An uneasy peace commenced, lasting to this day.
