Angolan Civil War

The Angolan Civil War (Portuguese: Guerra Civil Angolana) 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).

Angolan Civil War
Part of the Cold War (until 1991) and the First & Second Congo War (from 1996)
Map of the Angolan Civil War during the 1970s
Date 11 November 1975 – 4 April 2002 (26 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 3 days) Location Angola Result MPLA victory Creation of the People's Republic of Angola Withdrawal of all foreign forces in 1989. Transition towards a multiparty political system in 1991/92. Dissolution of the armed forces of the FNLA. Participation of UNITA and FNLA, as political parties, in the new political system, from 1991/92 onwards. Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA, killed in 2002; UNITA abandoned armed struggle and participated in electoral politics. Resistance of FLEC continues
Belligerents
MPLA  Cuba (1975–1991) SWAPO (1975–1991)[1] ANC (1975–1991)[2][1] Executive Outcomes (1993–1995)[3] FLNC (1975–2001)[4][5]  Namibia (2001–2002)[note 1] Material support:  Soviet Union (1975–1991)[7][8]  East Germany (1975–1989)[9]  Yugoslavia (1975–1991)[10] Congo (1975–1991)  North Korea (1980s)[note 2]  Romania (1979–1989)[13][14][15]  Tanzania  Mozambique  Brazil[16][17][18]  Portugal  Mexico[19]	UNITA FNLA (1975–1978)[5]  South Africa (1975–1991)[11]  Zaire (1975)[20][5] Material support:  United States (1975–1991)[5]  Morocco (1970s)[5]  China (1975)[5]  Zambia FLEC Material support:  France[21]
Commanders and leaders
Agostinho Neto † José Eduardo dos Santos Iko Carreira Kundi Paihama João Lourenço António Franca Lúcio Lara Fidel Castro Antonio Batlle Abelardo Colomé Ibarra Arnaldo Ochoa Raul Arguello † Erich Honecker Vasily Petrov Valentin Varennikov Aurel Niculescu Sam Nujoma	Jonas Savimbi † Jeremias Chitunda † António Dembo † Paulo Lukamba Demosthenes Chilingutila Alberto Vinama Kafundanga Chingunji Arlindo Pena Ben-Ben Holden Roberto Daniel Chipenda (1975) B. J. Vorster (1975–1978) P. W. Botha (1978–1989) Mobutu Sese Seko (1975) Luis Ranque Franque Henrique N'zita Tiago Rodrigues Mingas
Strength
MPLA troops: 40,000 (1976)[22] 70,000 (1987)[23] 130,000 (2001)[24] Cuban troops: 36,000 with 400 tanks (1976)[25] 35,000–37,000 (1982)[23] 60,000 (1988)[23] 337,033[26]–380,000[27] total (supported by 1,000 tanks, 600 armored vehicles and 1,600 artillery pieces)[28] East German troops: 3,500 paratroopers[29] Soviet troops: Altogether 11,000 (1975–1991)[30] Romanian troops: 600 with 50 aircraft (1979–1981)[13][14][15] Brazilian troops: Classified with tens of aircraft[18]	UNITA militants: 65,000 (1990, highest)[31] FNLA militants: 22,000 (1975)[32] 4,000–7,000 (1976)[33] South African troops: 20,000 (1975–1976)[34] 6,000 (1987–1988)[34]
Casualties and losses
Unknown 2,016–5,000 dead[35] 54 killed[36] 1 dead[37]	Unknown Unknown 2,365[38]–2,500 dead[39] (including South African Border War deaths) Unknown
500,000–800,000 killed and 4 million displaced[40][41]
Nearly 70,000 Angolans became amputees as a result of land mines[42]

Part of a series on the
History of Angola
Precolonial history to 1575 Colonization 1575–1641 Dutch occupation 1641–1648 Colonial history 1648–1951 Portuguese province 1951–1961 War of Independence 1961–1974 Sovereign socialist state 1975–1992 Civil War 1975–2002
Post-war Angola’s
2000s 2010s 2020s
See also
Years in Angola
v t e

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.[43] 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.[44] 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.[41][40] 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.[45] 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.[41]