The extended civil war in Angola (1975-2002) resulted in huge displacements of population and the separation of families both within the country and across international borders. Within Angola, barriers between areas controlled by the different parties to the conflict, coupled with the threat of landmines, meant that many areas were cut off. This has resulted in a large number of cases where the loss of family contact dates back to the first decades of the war.

Working in cooperation with the Angola Red Cross (Cruz Vermelha de Angola, CVA) the ICRC has set up a major tracing programme and opened 135 tracing offices around the country, in each municipality, to allow the Angolan people to: re-establish and maintain family links interrupted during the war, open tracing requests to find family members whose fate or location is unknown and find families of separated children and trace children based on parents’ requests.