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.[citation needed] 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.[42][45] 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.[46] 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.[42]
^ abShubin, Vladimir Gennadyevich (2008). The Hot "Cold War": The USSR in Southern Africa. London: Pluto Press. pp. 92–93, 249. ISBN978-0-7453-2472-2.
^Thomas, Scott (1995). The Diplomacy of Liberation: The Foreign Relations of the ANC Since 1960. London: Tauris Academic Studies. pp. 202–207. ISBN978-1850439936.
^Wolfe, Thomas; Hosmer, Stephen (1983). Soviet policy and practice toward Third World conflicts. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 87. ISBN978-0669060546.
^ abcdefHughes, Geraint (2014). My Enemy's Enemy: Proxy Warfare in International Politics. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. pp. 65–79. ISBN978-1845196271.
^Chan, Stephen (2012). Southern Africa: Old Treacheries and New Deceits. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. pp. 42–46. ISBN978-0300184280.
^Mitchell, Thomas G. (2013). Israel/Palestine and the Politics of a Two-State Solution. Jefferson: McFarland & Company Inc. pp. 94–99. ISBN978-0-7864-7597-1.
^Shubin, Vladimir; Shubin, Gennady; Blanch, Hedelberto (2015). Liebenberg, Ian; Risquet, Jorge (eds.). A Far-Away War: Angola, 1975-1989. Stellenbosch: Sun Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN978-1920689728.
^ abJames III, W. Martin (2011) [1992]. A Political History of the Civil War in Angola: 1974–1990. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. pp. 207–214, 239–245. ISBN978-1-4128-1506-2.
^Polack, Peter (13 December 2013). The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War. Casemate Publishers. pp. 66–68. ISBN9781612001951.
^Selcher, Wayne A. (1976). "Brazilian Relations with Portuguese Africa in the Context of the Elusive "Luso-Brazilian Community"". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. 18 (1): 25–58. doi:10.2307/174815. JSTOR174815.
^Taylor, Moe (2019). "Every Citizen a Soldier: The Guyana People's Militia, 1976–1985". Journal of Global South Studies. 36 (2). University of Florida: 279–311. doi:10.1353/gss.2019.0044. Washington never sought to remove Forbes Burnham from power, despite frequent vexations with his policies. ... However, because of its displeasure with numerous Guyanese policies during the decade, the United States applied pressure in various ways: it suspended economic and food aid, it blocked World Bank loans, and it appeared to side with Venezuela in the ongoing territorial dispute. The October 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455, in which eleven Guyanese, five North Koreans and fifty-seven Cubans were killed, was widely seen as retaliation for Guyana and Cuba's coordinated involvement in Angola.
^Cámara, Francisco (1993). Dos Captíulos de la Diplomacia Mexicana. Mexico City: National Autonomous University of Mexico. p. 73. ISBN978-968-36-2914-2.
^Cite error: The named reference Mexican nationals was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Steenkamp, Willem (2006) [1985]. Borderstrike! (Third ed.). Durban: Just Done Productions Publishing. pp. 102–106. ISBN978-1-920169-00-8.
^Political terrorism: a new guide to actors, concepts, data bases, theories and literature.
^ abClodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. McFarland. p. 566. ISBN978-0786474707.
^Polack, Peter (2013). The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (illustrated ed.). Oxford: Casemate Publishers. pp. 164–171. ISBN978-1612001951.
^Mallin, Jay (1994). Covering Castro: Rise and Decline of Cuba's Communist Dictator. Transaction Publishers. p. 101.
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