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Both of its restaurants are open as usual. Children go to school in the morning like thousands of others in southern Africa. A new tourist board office has just opened to welcome curious visitors. Kuito could be any community in this great continent, except for the fact that every wall in this Angolan city bears the scars of three decades of proxy war.

Peace came to Kuito just three months ago. Gin and tonics two weeks ago. Life is slowly returning to normal. UNITA rebels tried for 10 years to take control. The defending MPLA government troops stood fast. Back gardens now double as war graves for the bodies of fallen soldiers from both sides.

Angola is the land of contradictions. It is one of the richest nations in Africa yet half a million are suffering from starvation and a million are dependent on United Nations food aid. Three months after the ceasefire agreement between UNITA guerillas and the government, its people are filled with hope of a lasting peace. Yet a third of Angolans are fugitives in their own land depending on international aid. Angola has a long journey ahead.

Angolan foreign secretary Paulo Jorge identifies three major problems: "One, humanitarian aid. Take into account that the conditions our people live under is a result of war. Second, the resettlment of displaced people, who total more or less four million. The majority of these people are peasants. To get them back home we need to create special conditions. We need to give them materials for construction, materials for agriculture."

But Angola's third problem, according to Jorge, is probably its biggest: landmines. One-third of the country is off limits because of them. They were made in China, Belgium, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S. Others date from before the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin Wall, from the former Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, and even West Germany. "We have urgent need to demine the country," says Jorge. "But where does the help come from? Maybe those countries who where so eager to sell landmines to UNITA could remove them."

Landmines mutilate more than 70,000 Angolans every year, more than anywhere else in the world. Widow Lusia Duarte, 50, has very personal experience of their deadly effects. She stepped on one in 1984 and lost a leg. Only recently has she been given a prosthesis by the Red Cross. "Now, with a new leg, I can help my eight children with the housework," she says. "Before, I could do nothing."

The beginning of the end of Angola's 30-year civil war came on Feb. 22, 2002, when UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi died in a hale of bullets fired by governement troops. By April 4, 2002, the ceasefire between the MPLA Government and the UNITA rebels was signed and the demobilization of the guerillas began. Part of the deal was a promise by the government of food and shelter for the former guerillas. Yet the 74,000 soldiers have so far received very little and their families are suffering the worst losses of all Angolans.

The rebels have known little else than war for three decades. They have raised their children in the bush, taught them how to fight and survive on virtually nothing. But Rui Passolo, base manager for the UN's World Food Program (WFP) in Kuito, rejects claims that the government is not doing enough. "There's a very good relationship between the government forces and UNITA," he says. "Sometimes they joke together and laugh. That shows this war was not an internal matter. It was an external matter."

Now a new era is dawning. Desire for a lasting peace can be found on both sides. The last elections of any sort were held 10 years ago, new elections are due in late 2003 or early 2004. The present president José Eduardo Dos Santos has already said he will not stand for reelection.

Until then, the present government must deal with the twin problems of hunger and disease. Polio claims the lives of hundreds of Angolan children every year. Many more are dying from malnutrition. Children under the age of six months are often in a pretty good shape thanks to breastfeeding, but one in three die before the age of five.

But amid the grinding poverty and malnutrition there is a paradox: Angola is one of the world's most important diamond producers. The Catoca mine, in the province of Lunda Sul, is the world's fourth largest open-cast diamond mine. In 1999 the mine made a net profit of $38 million and the company expects to dig out 135 million carats of diamonds before the soil is emptied of gems. The country's oil wealth is even greater. Last year, Angola provided 7% of the U.S.'s oil consumption. The potential is there. What Angola's fledging democracy needs now is more than food aid. It needs a new start. Angola has a long journey ahead.

• MAX BROCKBANK
• Angola has a long way to go to enjoy the peace dividend