Kuito

Kuito, also spelled Cuito, formerly Silva Porto, Vila Salva Porto, Bié, or Bihé, town (founded 1890), central Angola. It is the chief trade and market centre of the fertile Bié Plateau and processes rice and other grains, coffee, meat, and beeswax. The town suffered much damage in the civil war following Angola’s independence in 1975 and was almost totally destroyed in the fighting following multiparty elections in 1992 and again in 1998. The onerous task of rebuilding Kuito’s infrastructure began after the civil war ended in 2002. The Benguela Railway, crossing the country from east to west, passes just north of Kuito. The Portuguese explorer António Francisco Ferreira da Silva Porto, for whom the original settlement was named, had homesteaded and built a stockade nearby and in 1890 died there. The town is served by an airport. Pop. (2014) 355,423.