Cidadela stadium in the centre of Luanda was packed to the rafters for the ceremony, organised by Christian churches in Angola, where the army and rebels on April 4 last year signed a peace agreement to formally end 27 years of civil war.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos attended the ceremony along with his wife, members of the government and several opposition leaders.

"Several years' suffering provoked by the war will not be appeased unless we embrace justice and forgiveness," said archbishop of Luanda Damiao Franklim, as the jubilant crowd sang, prayed and waved scarves and white balloons.

"There is no peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness. Peace depends on harmony between Angolans," Franklim said.

People throughout Angola observed a minute's silence at 12:00 pmin honour of the victims of the war, which claimed an estimated 500,000 lives.

Radio and television channels stopped broadcasting for the minute-long tribute, and resumed their programming with live coverage of the Cidadela ceremony, where people were "praying for peace."

Angola's parliament has declared April 4 "Peace and Reconciliation Day".

On April 4 last year, the army signed a peace pact with rebels from the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), formally ending the war started by UNITA in 1975 and which had raged almost non-stop since.

The war had been driven by UNITA's founder and leader Jonas Savimbi, whose death in battle on February 22 last year signalled the end of the conflict, Africa's longest.

SPACE.WIRE