 At the time, Cabinda was producing nearly all of Angola's oil, which accounted for close to half of the nation's gross national product.During much of the 1970s and 1980s, FLEC operated a low intensity, guerrilla war, attacking Angolan government troops and economic targets or creating havoc by kidnapping foreign employees working in the province's oil and construction businesses.In July 2006 after ceasefire negotiations in Brazzaville, António Bento Bembe – as a president of Cabindan Forum for Dialogue and Peace, vice-president and executive secretary of FLEC – announced that the Cabindan separatist forces were ready to declare a ceasefire.