Camissombo is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and commune of

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, located in the Lucapa

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Lunda Norte Lunda Norte () is a province of Angola. It has an area of 103,760 km² and a population of 862,566. Angola's first President, Agostinho Neto, made Lucapa the provincial capital after independence, but the capital was later moved to Dundo. ...

Economy

Diamond mining

Since 2023, Camissombo has been producing

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

out of the 508 square kilometer Sociedade Mineira Yetwene (SMY) mine in the Chicapa River basin. SMY is a partnership between ENDIAMA, Mountain Stability, the Sociedade Mineira de Investimentos da Lunda, and All Magic, Lda. In 2024, Vánia Ferreira, the person in charge of planning and operating SMY, announced a planned expansion of the mining operation that is expected to more than quadruple its ore treatment capacity and increase monthly diamond production from three thousand to thirteen thousand carats. According to Ferreira, the mine employs 224 people, and is expected to increase that number by 45% once the expansion is complete.

Infrastructure and services

Estrada Nacional nº 180, a dirt highway, runs north-south through Camissombo, connecting it in the north to EN-190 and EN-223 at

Dundo Dundo, or Dundo-Chitato, is a former mining town, with a population of 177,604 (2014), now a city and the provincial capital of Lunda Norte Province, Lunda Norte in Angola. Established in the early part of the 20th century as a planned diamond min ...

and in the south to Lucapa and

Saurimo Saurimo, formerly known as Henrique de Carvalho, is a city in Angola. It is the capital of Lunda Sul Province. As of 2014, Saurimo has a population of 393,000 people, which steadily grows as a result of migration. History The city was formerly ...

. Camissombo is one of 15 locations selected by Minister of Energy and Water

João Baptista Borges João Baptista Borges (born 4 January 1964, Luanda) is an Angolan academic and politician who served as Minister of Energy and Water under Presidents José Eduardo dos Santos and João Lourenço from 2011 to date. He was a professor of Engineering ...

to host a new

solar park A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

as part of the Lunda Norte

Rural Electrification Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2019, 770 million ...

initiative by the project's planned completion in 2027. When the project is complete, the new solar parks are expected to generate 256

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

for the communities they serve. The Escola do Camissombo has spaces for 120 students, and was recently renovated as part of the obligations of SMY. SMY has also partnered with the

University of Luanda The University of Luanda (UniLuanda; ) is an Angolan public university based in the city of Luanda. The university emerged from the merger of the Higher Institute for Information and Communication Technologies and the Higher Institute of Manage ...

to provide arts education in Camissombo and internships to UniLuanda students.

Demographics

Religion

Camissombo has a mostly

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

population, with the majority of the population identifying as Protestant or Catholic in 2024. 942 people identified as practicing an indigenous religion, making them, viewed together, the second largest religious group after Christianity.

Age

References

Populated places in Angola {{Lunda Norte Province