Menongue

Menongue
—  Municipality and town  —
Menongue Location in Angola
Coordinates: 14°40′S 17°42′E / 14.667°S 17.7°E / -14.667; 17.7
Country	Angola
Province	Cuando Cubango Province
Time zone	WAT (UTC+1)

Menongue is a town and municipality in Cuando Cubango Province in Angola.^[1]

It is the terminus of the southern railway from Namibe.

History

Menongue, formerly Serpa Pinto, was originally named for Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto, a late 19th-century Portuguese explorer of the interior of southern Africa. Located on the Cuebe River (a tributary of the Okavango Kubango River) at an elevation of 4,462 feet (1,360 metres), it is a garrison town and market centre for the surrounding sparsely populated, semiarid region. Cattle and subsistence crops of corn (maize) and other vegetables are raised by the Nganguela and Chokwe peoples, and trade in cattle and hides and skins is locally important. After independence in 1975, MiG 23 aircraft from the nearby airbase launched air strikes against the SADF during the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (1987-1988), a battle of the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002).

References

1. ^ "City councils of Angola". Statoids. http://www.statoids.com/yao.html. Retrieved April 7, 2009. 

Coordinates: 14°40′00″S 17°42′00″E / 14.6666667°S 17.7°E / -14.6666667; 17.7