What you need to know about Cabinda

Cabinda is a city located in the Cabinda Province, an exclave of Angola. Angolan sovereignty over Cabinda is disputed by the secessionist Republic of Cabinda. The municipality of Cabinda covered 1,823 square kilometres (704 square miles) and contained 598,210 inhabitants in 2014. The residents of the city are known as Cabindas or Fiotes. Cabinda, due to its proximity to rich oil reserves, serves as one of Angola’s main oil ports.
The city was founded by the Portuguese as a harbour territory for the purposes of the slave trade.
There are considerable offshore oil reserves nearby.

Population: 688,285(2014)
Area: 1 823 km²

Currency

The Angolan Kwanza is the currency of Angola. The currency code for Kwanza is AOA, and the currency symbol is K.
Coins: KZ1, KZ2, Kz5, 10,50.
Notes: Kz10, Kz50, Kz100, Kz200, Kz500, Kz1000, Kz2000.
Central bank: National Bank of Angola.

Climate
The climate here is tropical. In winter, there is much less rainfall in Cabinda than in summer. This climate is considered to be Aw according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification.

Language
Ibinda, a Bantu language, is the primary language of both the city and province of Cabinda. Portuguese, the official language of Angola, is also spoken, though mostly as an administrative role. Since Cabinda was colonized relatively later (late nineteenth century) by Portugal compared to most of Angola, Portuguese isn’t as widely spoken, though language speakers are rapidly growing in number.

Districts
The city of Cabinda is divided into three districts, or comuna:

• Cabinda, the city seat, with 88.6 of the population the city
• Malembo, with 3.1
• Tando-Zinze, with 8.3

Geography
Cabinda is located on the Atlantic Ocean coast in the south of Cabinda Province, and sits on the right bank of the Bele River. It is 56 kilometres (35 mi) north of Moanda (DR Congo), 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Congo River estuary and 137 kilometres (85 mi) south of Pointe-Noire (Rep. Congo).

Transport
In 2012, a proposed railway connection to the main Angolan system has to cross territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.