The Angolan Civil War began as soon as Angola won its war for independence in 1975 with the Communist MPLA fighting the anti-Communist UNITA and the FLEC fighting for the independence of Cabinda. Formally brought to an end in 2002, an estimated 500,000 people were killed in the 27-year long war, Africa's longest running conflict. Fighting continues between the government and the breakaway Republic of Cabinda. The conflict was one of the largest Cold War conflicts of the developing world. Three main factions were involved; the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), with a base among the Kimbundu and the mixed-race intelligentsia of Luanda, and links to the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc; the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), with an ethnic base in the Bakongo region of the north and links to the United States, the People's Republic of China and the Mobutu regime in Zaïre; and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi with an ethnic and regional base in the Ovimbundu heartland in the center of the country, and supported by the United States, apartheid South Africa and several other African leaders.**********************The MPLA defeated UNITA in several battles from September 22-25, 2000, gaining control over military bases and diamond mines in Lunda Norte and Lunda Sol. The lost of the mines hurt Savimbi's ability to pay his troops.************************* Government troops killed Savimbi on February 22, 2002 in Moxico province.UNITA Vice President Antonio Dembo took over, but died from diabetes twelve days later on March 3, and Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba became UNITA's leader.After Savimbi's death the government came to a crossroads over how to proceed. After initially indicating the counter-insurgency might continue, the government announced it would halt all military operations on March 13. Military commanders for UNITA and the MPLA met in Cassamba and agreed to a cease-fire. However, Carlos Morgado, UNITA's spokesman in Portugal, said he UNITA's Portugal wing had been under the impression General Kamorteiro, the UNITA general who agreed to the ceasefire, had been captured more than a week earlier. Morgado did say that he had not heard from Angola since Savimbi's death. The military commanders signed a Memorandum of Understanding as an addendum to the Lusaka Protocol in Luena on April 4, Dos Santos and Lukambo observing. In August 2002 UNITA declared itself a political party and officially demobilized its armed forces. That same month the United Nations Security Council replaced the United Nations Office in Angola with the United Nations Mission in Angola, a larger, non-military, political presence. ************ The civil war internally displaced four million people, one-third of Angola's population. The government spent $187 million settling IDPs between April 4, 2002 and 2004, after which the World Bank gave $33 million to continue the settling process. Militant forces laid approximately 15 million land mines by 2002. The HALO Trust charity began de-mining in 1994, destroying 30,000 by July 2007. There are 1,100 Angolans and seven foreign workers who are working for HALO Trust in Angola, with operations expected to finish sometime between 2011 and 2014.