WikipediaExtracts:Angolan Civil War
Extracted from Wikipedia --
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({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=11|day1=11|year1=1975|month2=04|day2=04|year2=2002}})"},"location":{"wt":"Angola"},"result":{"wt":"MPLA victory"},"combatant1":{"wt":"'''{{flagd|Angola|size=22px}} People's Republic of Angola/Republic of Angola'''<br />\n* {{flagicon image|Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (bandeira).svg|size=22px}} MPLA\n{{flag|Cuba|size=22px}} (1975–1989)<br />\n{{flagicon image|Flag of South West Africa People's Organisation.svg|size=22px}} SWAPO (1975–1989)<ref name=Hot>{{cite book|last=Shubin|first=Vladimir Gennadyevich|title=The Hot \"Cold War\": The USSR in Southern Africa|date=2008|pages=92–93, 249|publisher=Pluto Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-7453-2472-2}}</ref><br />\n{{flagicon image|Flag of the African National Congress.svg|size=22px}} ANC (1975–1989)<ref name=Diplomacy>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Scott|title=The Diplomacy of Liberation: The Foreign Relations of the ANC Since 1960|year=1995|pages=202–207|publisher=Tauris Academic Studies|location=London|isbn=978-1850439936}}</ref><ref name=Hot/><br />\n{{nowrap|Executive Outcomes (1993–1995)<ref>{{cite book|chapter= Executive Outcomes Defeats UNITA|title=Mercenaries in Asymmetric Conflicts|first=Scott|last= Fitzsimmons|date=November 2012|isbn=9781107026919|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZfGYsrEIBEC%7Cpage=167%7Cpublisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139208727.006}}</ref>}}<br />\n
FLNC (1975–1978)<ref name=\"Katangese\">{{cite book\n|title=Soviet policy and practice toward Third World conflicts|last1=Wolfe|first1=Thomas|last2=Hosmer|first2=Stephen|location=Lanham|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=1983|isbn=978-0669060546|page=87}}</ref><ref name=\"Proxy\">{{cite book|title=My Enemy's Enemy: Proxy Warfare in International Politics|last=Hughes|first=Geraint|year=2014|location=Brighton|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1845196271|pages=65–79}}</ref><br />\n{{nowrap|{{flag|Namibia|size=22px}} (2001–2002){{refn|Irritated by UNITA cross-border raids, the Namibian Defence Force retaliated by sending units into southern Angola and destroying a UNITA training camp at Licua in late January 2001.<ref name=\"Weigert\">{{cite book|title=Angola: A Modern Military History|url=https://archive.org/details/angolamodernmili00weig%7Curl-access=limited%7Clast=Weigert%7Cfirst=Stephen%7Cyear=2011%7Clocation=Basingstoke%7Cpublisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0230117778|pages=70, 85–151, 233}}</ref> The Namibian troops were not withdrawn from Angola until May 2002.<ref name=\"Weigert\"/>|name=KBS|group=note}}}}\n{{Collapsible list\n|title = Military advisers and pilots:\n|{{flag|Soviet Union}}<br />(1975–1989)<ref name=Vanneman>{{cite book|last=Vanneman|first=Peter|title=Soviet Strategy in Southern Africa: Gorbachev's Pragmatic Approach|url=https://archive.org/details/sovietstrategyin00vann%7Curl-access=registration%7Cyear=1990%7Cpages=41–57|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|location=Stanford|isbn=978-0817989026}}</ref><ref name=Chan>{{cite book|last=Chan|first=Stephen|title=Southern Africa: Old Treacheries and New Deceits|year=2012|pages=42–46|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Connecticut|isbn=978-0300184280}}</ref><ref name=\"Dereza\">{{cite news |title=Война — это же не всегда победа |last=Dereza |first=Viktor |url=https://www.yuga.ru/articles/society/9030.html |work=Yuga |location=Krasnodar |date=14 February 2020 |access-date=18 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505234901/https://www.yuga.ru/articles/society/9030.html |archive-date=5 May 2025}}</ref>\n|{{flag|East Germany}}<br />(1975–1989)<ref name=\"Mitchell\" /><ref name=Baynham>{{cite book|last=Baynham|first=Simon|title=Military Power and Politics in Black Africa|year=1986|pages=216–219|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon|isbn=978-0367677275|quote=The Soviets provided direction, heavy lift and training staffs, the East Germans technical specialists ranging from helicopter pilots to medical personnel, and the Cubans a mass of soldiery...The next pattern was one of mixed Angolan and Cuban ground units, supported by East German-manned helicopters...[conditions dictated] the withdrawal of Cuban units to garrison roles, the actual ground fighting being left to Angolan units (now equipped with some very recent Soviet weaponry), very closely supported by East German and Russian training logistic cadres.}}</ref><ref name=Brent>{{cite book|last=Brent|first=Winston|title=African Military Aviation|year=1994|page=12|publisher=Freeworld|location=Nelspruit|isbn=978-0958388016|quote=Besides arms and aircraft, large numbers of Russians, East Germans, and Cubans were brought into the country to bolster the Angolan armed forces...Although a number of locals were beginning to undertake combat sorties, most of the sorties were flown either by Cuban or East German pilots and crew.}}</ref>\n|{{flag|North Korea}}<br />(1980s){{refn|The North Korean Military Mission in Angola had about 1,500 personnel attached to FAPLA in 1986, most likely advisers, although their exact duties are uncertain.<ref name=\"James\">{{cite book|title=A Political History of the Civil War in Angola: 1974–1990|last=James III|first=W. Martin|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2011|orig-year=1992|isbn=978-1-4128-1506-2|pages=207–214, 239–245}}</ref> Their presence in Angola may have been indirectly subsidised by the Soviet Union.<ref name=HotBattle>{{cite book|last1=Polack|first1=Peter|title=The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War|date=13 December 2013|publisher=Casemate Publishers|isbn=9781612001951|pages=66–68}}</ref> Up to 3,000 North Korean military personnel served in Angola throughout the 1980s.<ref name=\"BNNDPRK\">{{cite news |title=Why North Korean Troops in Russia Have the World's Attention|last=Herskovitz|first=Jon|url=https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/politics/2024/10/22/why-1500-north-korean-troops-have-the-worlds-attention/ |work=BNN Bloomberg |location=Ontario |date=22 October 2024 |access-date=31 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101043851/https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/politics/2024/10/22/why-1500-north-korean-troops-have-the-worlds-attention/ |archive-date=1 January 2025}}</ref>|name=KBV|group=note}}\n}}"},"combatant2":{"wt":"'''{{flagicon image|Flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Angola.svg|size=22px}} Democratic People's Republic of Angola'''<br />\n* {{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg|size=22px}} UNITA\n* {{flagicon image|Bandeira da FNLA.svg|size=22px}} FNLA (1975–1983)<ref name=\"Proxy\"/>\n{{nowrap|{{flag|South Africa|1928|size=22px}} (1975–1989)<ref name=\"James\">{{cite book|title=A Political History of the Civil War in Angola: 1974–1990|last=James III|first=W. Martin|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2011|orig-year=1992|isbn=978-1-4128-1506-2|pages=207–214, 239–245}}</ref>}}<br />\n{{flag|Zaire|size=22px}} (1975–1978)<ref name=\"Borderstrike\">{{cite book|title=Borderstrike! |last=Steenkamp|first=Willem|location=Durban|publisher=Just Done Productions Publishing|edition=3rd|year=2006|orig-year=1985|isbn=978-1-920169-00-8|pages=102–106}}</ref><ref name=\"Proxy\"/><br />{{flagicon image|Flag of Cabinda.svg}} FLEC\n{{Collapsible list\n| title = Military advisers:\n| {{flag|United States}}<br />(1975–1989)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Noel |title=Wars Without End: Competitive Intervention, Escalation Control, and Protracted Conflict |date=2 January 2025 |pages=119 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-779866-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5t44EQAAQBAJ%7Cquote=Former Director of Central Intelligence writes that between 1975 and 1976, training was conducted outside of Angola \"as no CIA officers were permitted to engage in combat or train there.\" Stockwell concurs that the CIA was prohibited from deploying advisors inside Angola, though he claims \"we did it anyway.\" However, he does not dispute the that advisors avoided combat, \"no CIA staffers were killed or suffered any discomfort worse than malaria.\" The CIA, he explains, let \"others run the serious risks.\" Likewise, following the repeal of the Clark Amendment in July 1985, US military advisors instructed their clients far from the front, basing in southeastern Angola at the UNITA headquarters in Jamba. Daniel Fenton, a former security analyst at the CIA, recalls that advisors \"talked only to Savimbi and a chosen few. They lived in a compound, and had no real movement of freedom.}}</ref>}}"},"commander1":{"wt":"{{plainlist |\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} Agostinho Neto{{natural causes}}\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} José E. dos Santos\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} Iko Carreira\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} Kundi Paihama\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} João Lourenço\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} António Franca\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} Lúcio Lara\n*{{flagdeco|Angola}} Pedro Pedalé\n*{{flagdeco|Cuba}} Fidel Castro\n*{{flagdeco|Cuba}} Antonio E. Lussón\n*{{flagdeco|Cuba}} Abelardo Colomé\n*{{flagdeco|Cuba}} Arnaldo Ochoa{{Executed}}\n*{{flagdeco|USSR}} Vasily Petrov\n*{{flagdeco|USSR}} Valentin Varennikov\n*{{flagdeco|USSR}} Pyotr Gusev\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of South-West Africa People's Organisation.svg}}{{flagdeco|Namibia}} Sam Nujoma\n}}"},"commander2":{"wt":"{{plainlist |\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} Jonas Savimbi{{KIA}}\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} Jeremias Chitunda{{KIA}}\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} António Dembo{{KIA}}\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} Paulo Lukamba\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} D. A. Chilingutila\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} Alberto Vinama{{natural causes}}\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} Elias Salupeto Pena{{KIA}}\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} Wilson dos Santos{{KIA}}\n*{{flagicon image|Bandeira da FNLA.svg}} Holden Roberto\n*{{flagicon image|Bandeira da FNLA.svg}} Daniel Chipenda\n*{{flagicon image|Bandeira da FNLA.svg}} Costas Georgiou{{Executed}}\n*{{flagdeco|South Africa|1928}} Magnus Malan\n*{{flagdeco|South Africa|1928}} Constand Viljoen\n*{{flagdeco|South Africa|1928}} Georg Meiring\n*{{flagicon|Zaire}} Mobutu Sese Seko\n*{{flagicon image|Flag of Cabinda.svg}} Henrique N'zita Tiago}}"},"strength1":{"wt":"{{flagicon|Angola}} '''MPLA troops:'''\n* 40,000 (1976)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0yQuAybzVJcC&pg=PA491 |title=''War''|author=Saul David|year=2009|publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited |isbn=9781405341332|access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref>\n* 70,000 (1987)<ref name=\"cubamatinal\">\"La Guerras Secretas de Fidel Castro\" {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118152048/http://www.cubamatinal.com/Noticia.cfm?NoticiaID=7964 |date=18 January 2012}} (in Spanish). CubaMatinal.com. Retrieved 9 March 2013.</ref>\n* 130,000 (2001)<ref>''Africa South of Sahara 2004'', p. 66.</ref>\n{{flagicon|Cuba}} '''Cuban troops:'''\n* 36,000 with 400 tanks (1976)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.urrib2000.narod.ru/Tanques-e.html%7Ctitle=Cuban Tanks • Rubén Urribarres|website=Cuban Aviation • Rubén Urribarres}}</ref>\n* 35,000–37,000 (1982)<ref name=\"cubamatinal\"/>\n* 60,000 (1988)<ref name=\"cubamatinal\"/>\n* 337,033<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gleijeses |first1=Piero |title=Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 |date=2013 |publisher=UNC Press Books |page=521}}</ref>–380,000<ref>Risquet Valdés (2007: xlvii)</ref> total (supported by 1,000 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, 1,600 artillery pieces, and 150 SAM-8 missile batteries)<ref>Risquet Valdés 2008: 102</ref><ref name=George/>\n{{flagicon|Soviet Union}} '''Soviet troops''':\n* Altogether 11,000<br />(1975 to 1991)<ref>{{cite web|author=Andrei Mikhailov|url=http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/15-02-2011/116909-soviet_union_foreign_wars-0 |title=Soviet Union and Russia lost 25,000 military men in foreign countries |publisher=English pravda.ru |date=15 February 2011 |access-date=18 August 2013}}</ref>\n{{flagicon|East Germany}} '''East German troops''':\n* 2,000–3,000<br />(1985)<ref name=\"Mitchell\"/><ref name=Clodfelter>{{cite book|last1=Clodfelter|first1=Micheal|title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed|date=2017|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786474707|page=566}}</ref><ref name=\"WT1\">{{cite news|title=Angola masses troops for new offensive|last1=Dorsey|first1=James|last2=Morrison|first2=James|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000504570001-3.pdf%7Cwork=The Washington Times|location=Washington DC|date=14 April 1987|access-date=28 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128050749/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000504570001-3.pdf |archive-date=28 January 2025}}</ref>\n{{flagicon|North Korea}} '''North Korean troops''':\n* Altogether 3,000<br />(1980s)<ref name=\"EconDPRK\">{{cite news |title=North Korea is shutting embassies: China and Russia are the only friends it needs|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |url=https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/11/09/north-korea-is-shutting-embassies |newspaper=The Economist |location=London |date=9 November 2023 |access-date=31 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111074244/https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/11/09/north-korea-is-shutting-embassies |archive-date=11 November 2023}}</ref><ref name=\"DWDPRK\">{{cite news |title=Why is North Korea shutting some embassies in Africa?|last=Ryall|first=Julian|url=https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-north-korea-shutting-some-embassies-in-africa/a-67318476 |work=Deutsche Welle |location=Bonn |date=9 November 2023 |access-date=31 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240927085145/https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-north-korea-shutting-some-embassies-in-africa/a-67318476 |archive-date=27 September 2024}}</ref><ref name=\"TWZDPRK\">{{cite news |title=Thousands Of North Korean Troops To Help Russia Fight Ukraine: Reports|last=Altman|first=Harold|url=https://www.twz.com/news-features/thousands-of-north-korean-troops-to-help-russia-fight-ukraine-reports |work=The War Zone |location=Miami|date=15 October 2024 |access-date=31 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241118000328/https://www.twz.com/news-features/thousands-of-north-korean-troops-to-help-russia-fight-ukraine-reports |archive-date=18 November 2024}}</ref>"},"strength2":{"wt":"{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} '''UNITA militants:'''\n* 65,000 (1990, highest)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNemVdadVxcC&pg=PA562 |title=''Cuban Communism, 8th Edition''|author=Irving Louis Horowitz|year=1995|publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=9781412820899|access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref>\n{{flagicon image|Bandeira da FNLA.svg}} '''FNLA militants:'''\n* 22,000 (1975)<ref>Angola – Independence Struggle, Civil War, and Intervention. MongaBay.com.</ref>\n* 4,000–7,000 (1976)<ref>''Political terrorism: a new guide to actors, concepts, data bases, theories and literature''.</ref>\n{{flagicon|Union of South Africa}} '''South African troops''':\n* 7,000 (1975–1976)<ref name=Clodfelter/>\n* 3,000 (1987–1988)<ref name=Clodfelter/>"},"casualties1":{"wt":"{{flagicon|Angola}} Records show 14,269 dead, but final count is unknown<ref>{{cite web |title=First Angolan Civil War |url=https://onwar.com/data/angola1975.html?utm_source=google.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Human Rights Figure |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/landmine/WEBAFR2.html?utm_source=google.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ziemke |first1=Jen |title=Research Gate \"From Battles to Massacres|date=27 October 2015 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283267011}}</ref><br />{{flagicon|Cuba}} 2,016–5,000 dead<ref name=\"Polack\">{{cite book|title=The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War |last=Polack|first=Peter|location=Oxford|publisher=Casemate Publishers|year=2013|isbn=978-1612001951|edition=illustrated|pages=164–171}}</ref><br />{{flagicon|Soviet Union}} 54 dead<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/15-02-2011/116909-soviet_union_foreign_wars-0/ |title=Soviet Union and Russia lost 25,000 military men in foreign countries – English Pravda |publisher=English.pravda.ru |date=15 February 2011 |access-date=18 August 2013}}</ref>"},"casualties2":{"wt":"{{flagicon image|Flag of UNITA.svg}} ''Unknown''<br />{{flagicon image|Bandeira da FNLA.svg}} ''Unknown''<br />{{flagicon|South Africa|1928}} 2,365<ref name=\"UNM\">{{cite web |last1=Akawa|first1=Martha|last2=Silvester|first2=Jeremy|url=https://repository.unam.edu.na/bitstream/handle/11070/732/waking%20the%20deadocr.pdf?sequence=1%7Clocation=Windhoek, Namibia|publisher=University of Namibia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110230352/https://repository.unam.edu.na/bitstream/handle/11070/732/waking%20the%20deadocr.pdf?sequence=1%7Carchive-date=10 November 2016 |title=Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=March 2012 |access-date=2 September 2023}}</ref>–2,500 dead<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Reginald Herbold Green |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/402283/Namibia/44019/The-road-to-Namibia |title=Namibia : The road to Namibia – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=15 January 2013}}</ref>{{Ref label|CU|a}}<br />{{flagicon|USA}} 6 dead<ref>Ted Gup, ''The Book of Honor : The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives'', 318</ref>"},"casualties3":{"wt":"800,000 killed and 4 million displaced<ref name=Angola>{{Cite web|url=https://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/Angola.pdf%7Ctitle=Angola (1975–2002)|access-date=17 July 2020|archive-date=25 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025025640/http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/Angola.pdf%7Curl-status=dead}}</ref>"},"notes":{"wt":"{{Note label|CU|a}} including South African Border War deaths"}},"i":0}}]}' id="mwCA"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1374427404" about="#mwt247" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles" data-mw='{"name":"templatestyles","attrs":{"src":"Hlist/styles.css"},"body":{"extsrc":""}}'/><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1374427404" about="#mwt249" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles" data-mw='{"name":"templatestyles","attrs":{"src":"Hlist/styles.css"}}'/>
The Angolan Civil War (Portuguese: Guerra Civil Angolana<link rel="mw:PageProp/Category" href="./Category:Articles_containing_Portuguese-language_text" about="#mwt252" id="mw2w"/>) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements, the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
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 Angolan War of Independence, played almost no role in the Civil War. Additionally, the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), an association of separatist militant groups, fought for the independence of the province of Cabinda from Angola. With the assistance of Cuban soldiers and Soviet support, the MPLA managed to win the initial phase of conventional fighting, oust the FNLA from Luanda, and become the de facto Angolan government. The FNLA disintegrated, but the U.S.- and South Africa-backed UNITA continued its irregular warfare against the MPLA government from its base in the east and south of the country.
The 27-year war can be divided roughly into three periods of major fighting—from 1975 to 1991, 1992 to 1994 and from 1998 to 2002—with fragile periods of peace. By the time the MPLA achieved victory in 2002, between 500,000 and 800,000 people had died and over one million had been internally displaced. The war devastated Angola's infrastructure and severely damaged public administration, the economy, and religious institutions.
The Angolan Civil War was notable due to the combination of Angola's violent internal dynamics and the exceptional degree of foreign military and political involvement. The war is widely considered a Cold War proxy conflict, as the Soviet Union and the United States, with their respective allies Cuba and South Africa, assisted the opposing factions. The conflict became closely intertwined with the Second Congo War in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo and the South African Border War. Land mines still litter the countryside and contribute to the ongoing civilian casualties.
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