Angolan tourism faces challenges much bigger than getting elephants on to aircraft

According to the Kissama Foundation, the charity overseeing the airlift, another batch of elephants and two flights with antelope are due to arrive in the next few days.

The animals have been donated by reserves in South Africa and Botswana, which have a surplus of wildlife.

Killed for food

In addition to the immense human cost of 25 years of civil war, the Angolan conflict has also taken its toll on the country's wildlife stocks.

Angola's long-running conflict has taken its toll on wildlife

Animals were driven away by fighting or killed for food by rival armies.

The first airlift of animals to replenish the game stock in Angola took place a year ago when 30 elephants were flown in.

The project is being funded by private donations and not government money, though Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is the patron of the Kissama Foundation.

Tourist destination

Members of the foundation include several Angolan cabinet ministers and senior military officers, as well as the South African politician, Roelf Meyer.

Part of the idea is to put Angola on the map as a tourist destination.

But Angolan tourism faces challenges much bigger than getting elephants onto aircraft.

The cost of living there is high by African standards; flights in and out of Luanda are expensive; and the country is isolated from the major tourist areas of southern and eastern Africa.

Also, despite government assurances that it controls most of Angola's territory, the Unita rebels have staged a series of guerrilla attacks in recent months, including some not far from the borders of the Quicama National Park.