HISTORY OF ANGOLA

'Angola' is a country in the southwestern part of Africa. Portugal annexed the territory as a colony in 1655 and incorporated Angola as a province in 1951. The Portuguese government granted Angola independence on November 11, 1975 through the Alvor Agreement.

Contents

Civil war

Post-civil war

Sources and references

Civil war

Main articles: Angolan Civil War

A 1974 coup d'état in Portugal established a military government that promptly ceased the war and agreed to hand over power to a coalition of the three movements. The coalition quickly broke down and turned into a civil war. The United States, Zaïre and South Africa intervened militarily in favor of the FNLA and UNITA. In response, Cuba, backed by the Soviet Union, intervened in favor of the MPLA. In November 1975, the MPLA had all but crushed UNITA, and the South African forces withdrew. The U.S. Congress barred further U.S. military involvement in Angola.
In control of Luanda and the coastal strip (and increasingly lucrative oil fields), the MPLA declared independence on November 11, 1975, the day the Portuguese abandoned the capital. Portugal recognized the declaration of independence. Agostinho Neto became the first president, followed by José Eduardo dos Santos in 1979. The opposition movements, FNLA and UNITA, created a joint government in the zones they controlled. The "Democratic Republic of Angola" was founded on November 24, 1975, with Holden Roberto and Jonas Savimbi as co-presidents and Jose Ndele and Johny E. Pinnock as co-prime ministers. This government was dissolved after January 30, 1976.
Civil war between UNITA and the MPLA continued until an American and Portuguese-brokered agreement resulted in withdrawal of foreign troops (thousands of Cuban and South African soldiers, respectively obeying Moscow and Washington) in 1989, and led to the Bicesse Accord in 1991, which spelled out an electoral process for a democratic Angola under the supervision of the United Nations. MPLA won the first round with 49% of the votes, against 40% for UNITA. Opponent Savimbi refused the results and returned to war. A second peace accord, the Lusaka Protocol, was brokered in Lusaka, Zambia and signed on November 20, 1994.
The peace accord between the government and UNITA provided for the integration of former UNITA insurgents into the government and armed forces. However, in 1995, localized fighting resumed. A national unity government was installed in April of 1997, but serious fighting resumed in late 1998 when Savimbi renewed the war for a second time, claiming that the MPLA was not fulfilling its obligations. The UN Security Council voted on August 28, 1997, to impose sanctions on UNITA. The Angolan military launched a massive offensive in 1999 that destroyed UNITA's conventional capacity and recaptured all major cities previously held by Savimbi's forces. Savimbi then declared that UNITA would return to guerrilla tactics, and much of the country remained in turmoil.
The extended civil wars rendered hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Up to 1.5 million lives may have been lost in fighting over the past quarter century.

Post-civil war

In 2002 the government assassinated Savimbi in a military operation and UNITA and the MPLA agreed to sign a cease-fire six weeks later, on April 4. In August 2002 UNITA declared itself a political party and officially demobilized its armed force, ending the civil war. Angola is currently at peace under the leadership of the MPLA and dos Santos. It faces huge social and economic problems as a result of an almost continual war since 1961.

Sources and references

★ ''Some of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.''

★ Graziano Saccardo, ''Congo e Angola con la stgoria dell'antica missione dei Cappuccini'' (3 vols., Venice, 1982-3)

★ David Brimingham, ''Trade and Conquest in Angola''. Oxford University Press, 1966.

★ Rulers.org — Angola list of rulers for Angola

★ WorldStatesmen