UNDER a peace deal agreed in Gabon this weekend Angola's warring government and rebels have given themselves only four months to unite their armies and learn to rule together.
In the meantime, the country's 10 million people will remain sceptical as to whether any real progress has been made a similar peace in 1991 broke down a year later in allegations of mutual bad faith and renewed civil war.
The latest peace deal emerged from several hours of talks between President Eduardo dos Santos, leader of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, and Dr Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the rebel Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita).
It gives Unita until July to send its estimated 60,000 fighters, with their weapons, to UN camps where they can be merged into a new national army. Unita must also nominate a vice president - possibly Dr Savimbi - and ministers to serve in a government of national unity, which is to be formed by June.
This was the fourth meeting between the two leaders since September 1992, when Unita repudiated UN brokered elections and launched a major offensive with forces it was supposed to have demobilised. Both sides are now under pressure from the international community to settle their power struggle, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more.
Fighting officially ended in November 1994 when Unita, facing military collapse, agreed to a ceasefire. There have been frequent violations on both sides, however, and up until the beginning of this year little progress was made to build on a peace accord signed by both leaders in May of last year.
In the past two months the government has honoured its commitment to free Unita prisoners and disengage its troops from many frontline areas, allowing troops from the UN's 6,500 strong peace keeping force to deploy between the rival forces. It also officially terminated the contract of Executive Outcomes, a South African mercenary firm which figured largely in its post 1992 victories over Unita. Under heavy pressure from the UN, the US, and Portugal, in recent weeks Unit a began sending fighters to UN run camps.
The government has complained that many of the 16,000 people now housed in the camps may not be real fighters.