LUANDA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- According to an agreement with Russia, the country will compensate Angola after the African country's first geostationary satellite Angosat-1 became inoperative.

This was announced to the press in Luanda Tuesday by the Angolan Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Jose Carvalho da Rocha.

The minister said that since April 23, when the satellite was declared dead, they have been redirecting services that were based on other operators for the compensation of Angosat-1, the Angolan satellite built by Russia.

According to the contractual clauses, Russia has the obligation to compensate the African country for the damages.

The minister also announced earlier the construction of a new satellite, expected to be completed within one and a half years.

Angosat-1 was launched into orbit through a Ukrainian transporter rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Built in 2012, following an agreement signed between Angola and Russia in 2009, Angosat-1 cost more than 300 million U.S. dollars. The communications satellite was launched into orbit on Dec. 26, 2017, and was scheduled to work for 15 years.