Uíge

Uíge, formerly Carmona, city, northwestern Angola. Settled by Portuguese colonists, Uíge grew from a small market centre in 1945 to become Angola’s major centre for coffee production in the 1950s and was designated a city in 1956. Its prosperity was short-lived, however, as the city was affected by recurrent fighting between Portuguese forces and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola; FNLA), one of three Angolan preindependence guerrilla movements. The fighting, which occurred primarily from 1961 to 1974, resulted in heightened instability in the city and surrounding area, as did the subsequent Angolan civil war (1975–2002) that immediately followed the country’s independence in 1975. Portuguese settlers abandoned Uíge in 1974–75, and it became the headquarters of the FNLA. In 1976 the city was captured by forces of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola; MPLA), a preindependence guerrilla movement and one of the primary factions fighting in the civil war. Attempts at reviving the lucrative business of coffee production in the locality had only limited success until the civil war ended. From late 2004 to mid-2005, the city was part of a region afflicted with one of the world’s largest epidemics of hemorrhagic fever caused by the Marburg virus. Pop. (latest est.) 61,966.