Huambo

Huambo, formerly known as Nova Lisboa, is Angola's third-most populous city and the capital of Huambo Province, standing on a high plateau in the country's central highlands about 220 kilometers east of Benguela. Founded on August 8, 1912, it became a major stop on the Benguela Railway linking the port of Lobito to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, suffered severe damage during Angola's 1975 to 2002 civil war, and has since entered a reconstruction phase, hosting the Jose Eduardo dos Santos University. Its population was 710,000 in the city proper and 836,293 in the wider municipality at the 2024 census.