Cafunfo is a village in North-Eastern Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

 (Lunda Norte

Lunda Norte

Lunda Norte is a province of Angola. It has an area of 103,000 km² and a population of approximately 850,000. Angola's first President, Agostino Neto, made Lucapa the provincial capital after independence, but the capital was later moved to Dundo. Municipalities in this province includeShah-Muteba,...

 Province) dominated by the informal and formal diamond mining industries. The area has numerous alluvial diamond deposits.

During the 1980s and 1990s it was the subject of heavy fighting between UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

 and FAPLA or FAA (Forças Armadas Angolanas) on multiple occasions; and on at least two occasions foreign mineworkers were held hostage by UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

 during that period, including on one occasion involving a forced march to UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

's Headquarters at Jamba in the South of the country.

Despite substantial investment in infrastructure and development by the Angolan Government and the diamond companies; on each occasion that UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

captured the town and then lost it, the rebel movement transported equipment and infrastructure to other sites before departure, leaving Cafunfo without the foundations for economic prosperity.

Formal mining did not recommence after capture by the government in the mid 1990s and the area became a stronghold for informal diamond mining.

Through the periods of tension it was only possible to reach Cafunfo by air.

Reading

As an archetypal diamond mining village, Cafunfo features heavily in
'The Perfect Soldier' by Graham Hurley, Pan Macmillan, 1996