Icolo e Bengo is a

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 ...

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 ...

. It was created on 5 September 2024 from

Luanda Province Luanda is a province of Angola. It used to cover an area of 18,835 km2, and had a population of 6,945,386 at the Census of 16 May 2014. The city of Luanda is the capital of the province and Angola. It serves as the country's primary port, cultur ...

. Its capital is Catete.

Geography and climate

Icolo e Bengo borders the Angolan provinces of

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

to the northwest, Bengo to the north, Cuanza Norte to the east, and Cuanza Sul to the south. It also borders the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

to the west. The boundary between Icolo e Bengo and Luanda follows the Cuanza River, the Kikuxi Canal, and the and highways. Icolo e Bengo is located on the floodplains of the Bengo, Cuanza and Longa rivers. The province is located in the Angolan Scarp savanna and woodlands ecoregion, and it contains Quiçama National Park. Icolo e Bengo experiences a

tropical climate Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of or higher in the coolest month, featuring hot te ...

with summer rain. The interaction between the cold

Benguela Current The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela Front in the no ...

and warm equatorial waters produces mist, causing humidity in the area to stay high year-round while annual rainfall is low, ranging from .

History

On 14 August 2024, Angola's

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

approved a law to create three new provinces, including separating the less urbanized portions of Luanda Province from the city of

to form the new province of Icolo e Bengo. This law went into effect with its publication in the official gazette of Angola on 5 September 2024.

Administration

Icolo e Bengo is divided into the seven

municipalities 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' ...

of Bom Jesus, Cabiri,

Cabo Ledo Cabo Ledo is a Municipalities of Angola, municipality in the province of Icolo e Bengo Province, Icolo e Bengo in Angola. Prior to the creation of Icolo e Bengo Province in 2024, it had been a Communes of Angola, commune in the municipality of Quic ...

, Calumbo, Catete,

Quiçama Quiçama (Portuguese spelling), Quissama or Kisama (Bantu spelling) is a municipality in the province of Icolo e Bengo in Angola. Prior to the creation of Icolo e Bengo in 2024, it had been one of the nine municipalities that made up the provinc ...

, and Sequele. Catete is further subdivided into the communes of Caculo Cahango, Cassoneca, Catete, and Caxicane; Quiçama is subdivided into the communes of Demba Chio, Mumbondo,

Muxima Muxima is a town and commune in the municipality of Quiçama, Icolo e Bengo Province, Angola. The village, located by Kwanza river, was occupied in 1589 by the Portuguese who erected a church and a fortress in 1599. Muxima means "heart" in Ki ...

, and Quixinge; and Sequele is subdivided into the communes of Funda, Quifangondo, and Sequele. The first governor of Icolo e Bengo is Auzílio de Oliveira Jacob, who was appointed in December 2024.

Economy and infrastructure

In contrast to the economy of Luanda, which is more oriented towards the

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

, Icolo e Bengo's economy is expected to focus more on agriculture and industry. Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport is located in Icolo e Bengo. The highway and the Luanda Railway also run east to west across the northern part of the province. At the time of its establishment, Icolo e Bengo had three hospitals: one was in the capital of Catete, and two others had been recently constructed in Zango and Sequele.

References

{{Provinces of Angola Icolo e Bengo Province Provinces of Angola States and territories established in 2024 2024 establishments in Angola