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FAPLA
The People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola ( pt, Forças Armadas Populares de Libertação de Angola) or FAPLA was originally the armed wing of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) but later (1975–1991) became Angola's official armed forces when the MPLA took control of the government. Its major adversaries were the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), its armed wing, the Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FALA), and the South African Defence Force (SADF). The FAPLA fought the SADF and UNITA/FALA constantly from the 1970s, part of the Angolan Civil War and the South African Border War, including during Operation Savannah (1975-76), and Operation Sceptic (1980). The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (1987-1988) was the largest land battle in Africa since the Second World War. After the Bicesse Accords in 1993, the FAPLA were transformed in the Angolan Armed Forces (''Forças Armadas de Angola'', FAA), by the integration of UNIT ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Border War
The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angola from 26 August 1966 to 21 March 1990. It was fought between the South African Defence Force (SADF) and the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), an armed wing of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO). The South African Border War resulted in some of the largest battles on the African continent since World War II and was closely intertwined with the Angolan Civil War. Following several years of unsuccessful petitioning through the United Nations and the International Court of Justice for Namibian independence from South Africa, SWAPO formed the PLAN in 1962 with material assistance from the Soviet Union, China, and sympathetic African states such as Tanzania, Ghana, and Algeria. Fighting broke out between PLAN and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Cuito Cuanavale
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought intermittently between 14 August 1987 and 23 March 1988, south and east of the town of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, by the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and advisors and soldiers from Cuba, USSR, Vietnam, ANC and SWAPO against South Africa, and soldiers of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. The battle was the largest engagement of the Angolan conflict and the biggest conventional battle on the African continent since World War II. Mills & Williams (2006) UNITA and its South African allies defeated a major FAPLA offensive towards Mavinga, preserving the former's control of southern Angola. They proceeded to launch a bloody but inconclusive counteroffensive on FAPLA defensive positions around the Tumpo River east of Cuito Cuanavale. Following a number of failed attempts to take the settlements in 1986, eight FAPLA brigades mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Savannah (Angola)
Operation Savannah was the South African code name for their military incursion into Angola in 1975–1976. It was part of the South African Border War and arose due to the Angolan War of Independence. The operation also materially influenced the subsequent Angolan Civil War. South African forces invaded deep into Angola with the objective of driving the MPLA, Soviet and Cuban forces out of southern Angola so as to strengthen the position of UNITA, the main opponent of the MPLA and an ally of South Africa. South Africa as well as UNITA and FNLA had been receiving material and tacit support of the United States as part of their Cold War opposition to the Soviet Union which emboldened them to pursue this incursion. South African and UNITA fortunes were overturned and their forces were compelled to withdraw due to MPLA, Cuban and Soviet pressure. Victory was claimed by the MPLA who were actively supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, over the combined forces of UNITA, FNLA, Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angolan Armed Forces
The Angolan Armed Forces ( pt, Forças Armadas Angolanas) or FAA is the military of Angola. The FAA consist of the Angolan Army (), the Angolan Navy () and the National Air Force of Angola (). Reported total manpower in 2021 was about 107,000. The FAA is headed by the Chief of the General Staff António Egídio de Sousa Santos since 2018, who reports to the minister of National Defense, currently João Ernesto dos Santos. History Roots The FAA succeeded to the previous People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) following the abortive Bicesse Accord with the Armed Forces of the Liberation of Angola (FALA), armed wing of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). As part of the peace agreement, troops from both armies were to be demilitarized and then integrated. Integration was never completed as UNITA and FALA went back to war in 1992. Later, consequences for FALA personnel in Luanda were harsh with FAPLA veterans persecuting their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements, the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the turned anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The war was used as a surrogate battleground for the Cold War by rival states such as the Soviet Union, Cuban intervention in Angola, Cuba, History of South Africa#Apartheid era (1948–1994), South Africa, and the United States. The MPLA and UNITA had different roots in Angolan society and mutually incompatible leaderships, despite their shared aim of ending colonial rule. A third movement, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), having fought the MPLA with UNITA during the war for independenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Sceptic
Operation Sceptic (June 1980) was the largest anti-South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) sweep during the South African Border War up to that point. The operation was also known as Smokeshell though this was the codename for the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) base which was the main focus of the attack. This operation followed Operation Safraan and preceded Operation Klipklop. Overview Operation Sceptic was launched on 10 June 1980 as a lightning attack on a SWAPO base in Southern Angola but developed into an extended operation as more and more SWAPO caches were discovered in the territory. Sceptic was due to end on the 16 June but due to additional bases being discovered from intelligence gathered during the operation, the clashes continued and finally ended on 30 June with all South African Defence Force (SADF) forces back in SWA/Namibia by 1 July 1980. Operation Sceptic included serious clashes between the SADF and the People's Armed Forces for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FALA
The Armed Forces of the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Forças Armadas de Libertação de Angola) or FALA was the armed wing of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a prominent political faction during the Angolan Civil War. History After their training in China in 1965, the first military cadres returned to Angola, settled in the eastern part of the country and began the mobilization and recruitment of guerrillas. In this way, the first embryonic contingent of FALA was formed. The number of guerrillas increased with the growing number of UNITA members among the population, thus permitting effective military training. This enabled them to begin the mission of liberating the country from the claws of Portuguese colonialism, as proved by the attacks of 4 and 25 December 1966 on Kassamba and Teixeira de Sousa respectively. The first military regions were established along with their respective independent zones and operational fronts like Quembo, Lewa a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
José Eduardo Dos Santos
José Eduardo dos Santos (; 28 August 1942 – 8 July 2022) was the president of Angola from 1979 to 2017. As president, dos Santos was also the commander-in-chief of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and president of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the party that has ruled Angola since it won independence in 1975. He was the second-longest-serving president in Africa, surpassed only by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. Dos Santos joined the MPLA, then an anti-colonial movement, while still in school, and earned degrees in petroleum engineering and radar communications while studying in the Soviet Union. Following the Angolan War of Independence, Angola was constituted in 1975 as a Marxist–Leninist one-party state led by the MPLA. Dos Santos held several positions including Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of independent Angola's first president, Agostinho Neto. Following Neto's death in 1979, dos Santos was electe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MPLA
The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, Abbreviation, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social democratic political party. The MPLA fought against the Portuguese army in the Angolan War of Independence from 1961 to 1974, and defeated the UNITA, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in the Angolan Civil War. The party has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975, being the ''de facto'' government throughout the civil war and continuing to rule afterwards. Formation On 10 December 1956, in Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo-ruled Portuguese Angola, the underground Angolan Communist Party (PCA) merged with the Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUA) to form the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angolan Army
The Angolan Army () is the land component of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). History On August 1, 1974, a few months after a military coup d'état had overthrown the Lisbon regime and proclaimed its intention of granting independence to Angola, the MPLA announced the formation of FAPLA, which replaced the EPLA. By 1976 FAPLA had been transformed from lightly armed guerrilla units into a national army capable of sustained field operations. Library of Congress Country Studies In 1990–91, the Army had ten military regions and an estimated 73+ 'brigades', each with a mean strength of 1,000 and comprising inf, tank, APC, artillery, and AA units as required. The Library of Congress said in 1990 that ' e regular army's 91,500 troops were organized into more than seventy brigades ranging from 750 to 1,200 men each and deployed throughout the ten military regions. Most regions were commanded by lieutenant colonels, with majors as deputy commanders, but some regions were commanded by ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
António França
General António Santos França "Ndalu" is a former footballer and Angolan politician, born in the town of Mupa in Cunene on April 9, 1938. He played as a midfielder. Following his short sporting career, he completed his studies in Portugal y Cuba and returned to Angola, where he became a fervent anti-colonial activist, and became General "Ndalu". In 1988, dos Santos França was chief of staff for the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). Dos Santos França later became Minister of Defence, first Angolan Ambassador to the United States 1995, and a member of the De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and ... Angola Board from October 2005 to March 2010.Polack, The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War, Case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
