+ Apr 1967 - Continued Guerrilla Activities in Northern and Eastern Areas

Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives),
Volume 13, April, 1967 Angola, Page 21965
© 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved.

[+] Apr 1967 - Continued Guerrilla Activities in Northern and Eastern Areas.

Dr. Franco Nogueira, the Portuguese Foreign Minister, said in Lisbon on March 16, 1967, on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the outbreak of fighting in Angola, that although the war had seriously prejudiced life in Angola, the situation had “returned to normal” on the political, military, and economic planes. He claimed that the Portuguese armed forces had “re-established the situation,” that there was “not a single small piece of land under terrorist control,” and that “there would be no Angolan problem if there were no more training bases outside the Territory.” He added that development was continuing “at an accelerated pace” in the fields of economy, finance, health, and education, and he severely criticized those–in particular the Swedish Government and Press–who had accused Portugal of “cruel oppression” and “backwardness” in Portuguese Africa.

Earlier, however, the Portuguese authorities had acknowledged that guerrilla fighting, which since 1963 had been more or less restricted to the northern areas (along the frontier with the Congo) and the Cabinda enclave, was continuing and had even spread to other regions. Thus General Gomes de Araujo, the Portuguese Minister of Defence, said in Lisbon on Sept. 13, 1966, after his return from a tour of inspection in Angola and Mozambique, that rebels under the direction of the Movimiento Popular de Libertacao de Angola (MPLA) had opened a new front in Eastern Angola, and he alleged that they used Zambia as their base. A military spokesman said in Lisbon on Jan. 7, 1967, that guerrilla warfare had in recent weeks extended to several regions, that the Portuguese authorities had therefore had to strengthen their military commitment in Angola, and that almost 55,000 troops (i.e. half the Portuguese military effectives in Africa) were engaged there.

The two principal organizations involved in conducting guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese authorities in Angola were the “Revolutionary Angolan Government-in-Exile” (GRAE), led by Senhor Holden Roberto, and the MPLA, led by Dr. Agostinho Neto and Senhor Mario de Andrade. These two organizations, the former being regarded as pro- Western and the latter denounced by Senhor Roberto as pro-Communist, were strongly at variance for several years, their guerrillas having fought each other in March 1963. After several abortive attempts at reconciliation, however, an agreement was signed on Oct. 15, 1966, at the U.A.R. Foreign Ministry in Cairo between representatives of the two movements, which provided for the immediate cessation of all forms of hostile propaganda against each other and the supervision of the implementation of the agreement by a commission under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (O.A.U.).

Following the recommendation by the O.A.U. Foreign Ministers’ conference in Dakar in August 1963, and the endorsement of the GRAE as the representative of the Angolan people by the O.A.U. Foreign Ministers’ conference in Lagos on Feb. 24, 1964, the GRAE had gradually been granted de jure recognition by many African Governments. The Congo (Leopoldville) had recognized the GRAE even earlier (in June 1963) without this leading to a diplomatic breach with Portugal. Further recognitions were accorded by Algeria., Morocco, and Tunisia in August 1963; Senegal in September 1963; the U.A.R. in October 1963; Rwanda in April 1964: and Liberia and Tote in June 1964. By January 1965 a total of 19 countries, including Dahomey, Guinea, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Tanzania, had thus recognized the GRAE.

The resignation of Senhor Jonas Savimbi as “Foreign Minister” of the GRAE in July 1964 was followed by further dissension and resignations from the “Cabinet.” On June 22, 1965, Senhor Alexander Taty, its former “Defence Minister,” said that he foresaw the ruin of the movement if it continued on its present course; he accused Senhor Roberto of never having fought himself and called him a “traitor” who, he alleged, had embezzled funds of the GRAE and failed to organize the fight against the Portuguese properly. On June 25 Senhor Taty and about 50 other Angolans, including Senhor Marc Kassongo (“Chief of Staff of the Angolan Liberation Army”) and Senhor Andre Kassinda (president of a newly formed “Angolan People's Committee”) raided the GRAE offices in Leopoldville and destroyed its records. Senhor Holden Roberto, who had denied any embezzlement of funds, blamed not only dissident elements in the movement for the raid, but also the Government of the Central Province of the Congo, which he accused of “sabotaging the Angolan struggle for freedom,” as well as the O.A.U., from whom he said he had received no money since October 1964.

The O.A.U. Liberation Committee in Dar-es-Salaam had in fact decided in November 1964 to give “material and technical aid” to the MPLA, which, it stated, had “opened a new front in the Cabinda enclave.” Previously, the MPLA had amalgamated on July 9, 1963, with several other nationalist troops in the Frente Demoratico de Libertacao de Angola (FDLA) under Dr. Neto, which later the same month opened an office in Brazzaville, the MPLA office in Leopoldville being closed by the authorities there in November 1963.

After the advent of the Tshombe Government in the Congo (Leopoldville) in July 1964 the activities of the GRAE were hampered by the Congolese authorities preventing the transit of arms and equipment to the Angolans’ training camp at Kinkuzu, and sometimes even the crossing of the frontier with Angola by guerrillas.

Later, however, under the Mobutu regime, Senhor Kassinda, who as leader of the “Angolan People's Committee” had asked President Mobutu for “moral, diplomatic, strategic, and logistical aid,” was reported to have been arrested on July 27, 1966, and to have been taken to the Kinkuzu base, which was under Senhor Roberto's control; all records of Senhor Kassinda's organization were said to have been seized.

During the years 1963-1966 guerrilla fighting was reported regularly both in official communiques issued by the Portuguese authorities and in statements by the rebels, at first mainly from the GRAE and later also increasingly often from the MPLA.

The situation in December 1963 was described by a special correspondent of the New York Times, who wrote that hundreds of soldiers of the “Liberation Army” had passed through “a rigorous basic training course st Camp Kinkuzu in the Congo,” where 2,000 men were turned out as reinforcements every eight weeks, with equipment coming almost entirely from Algeria. A local commander of the “Liberation Army” was quoted as saying: “The war here is like Algeria. We can't beat the Portuguese in the field but we can wear them down until the politicians are ready to talk…. It took the Algerians seven years before the French gave in. We are just as determined.” All members of the “Liberation Amy” were volunteers serving without payment and living entirely off the land. The dispatch gave total Portuguese losses since the beginning of the revolt in 1961 as slightly more than 1,300 killed and wounded, while rebel casualties were unknown. A Portuguese programme to attract refugees out of hiding into new settlements under Portuguese control had had some limited success among those still in Angola but bad led to the return of only very few of the over 200,000 people who had fled to the Congo.

According to Portuguese official sources the insurgents were suffering considerable losses in the operations.

Portuguese official communiques referred to clashes between July 3 and 10, 1963, at Bessa Monteiro (120 miles N. of Luanda); the destruction of six terrorist camps between July 10 and 17, with two Portuguese soldiers killed; the destruction of a further 23 camps between July 17 and 24; and the liberation of 67 Natives held captive by terrorists between July 31 and Aug. 7, 1963. The Portuguese authorities stated at that time that their operations, with the help of the Air Force patrolling the frontier and of volunteer corps formed to protect the coffee plantations in Northern Angola, had “cased terrorist pressure on the local inhabitants.” The Portuguese General Staff stated on Oct. 6, 1963, that the Portuguese Army could crush the rebel movement within a year, provided the latter received no aid from abroad; it added that only six per cent of the territory of Angola was then subject to rebel infiltration, although the Nationalists were increasingly better trained and armed, most of the weapons seized from them being of Belgian origin and some of the insurgents’ money coming from the U.S.A. The rebels’ numbers were estimated at between 4,000 and 5,000, against 40,000 officers and men in the Portuguese military forces, of whom 12,000 were fighting in the infiltrated zones.

Further official announcements spoke of 10 enemy encampments destroyed between Oct. 9 and 16, 1963, with two soldiers having died in an ambush and form others in action; several camps destroyed, with two soldiers killed and nine wounded, between Nov. 7 and 14; one worker and six members of the volunteer corps killed by terrorists between Jan. 22 and 29, 1964; six soldiers killed and two wounded between April 8 and 15; two killed and 11 wounded while several rebel camps were destroyed between April 22 and 29; “heavy rebel losses,” with two soldiers killed and five wounded, from May 26 to June 3; “considerable losses inflicted on terrorists.” camps being destroyed and equipment captured, with the loss of five soldiers killed and nine wounded, between July 8 and 15; seven soldiers and 10 civilians killed, 18 soldiers and 20 civilians wounded, and about 100 others abducted by rebels between Nov. 11 and 18, 1964; five soldiers killed and seven wounded between Aug. 11 and 18, 1965; and 18 soldiers killed and seven wounded in the last week of November 1965)–these losses being described as “the greatest for a year.”

On Dec. 14, 1966, the Portuguese Army announced that on Dec. 9 a Portuguese column near Noqui had been attacked with automatic weapons and minethrowers from Congolese territory, and that the Portuguese had returned the fire and both sides had suffered losses; in Kinshasa it was stated that about 100 Portuguese soldiers had invaded the Congolese village of Lombo, setting fire to two houses and injuring several refugees. A GRAE communique claimed that the fighting at Noqui had cost the lives of 25 Portuguese soldiers, but the Portuguese authorities admitted only seven deaths. The Angola-Congo border was officially closed by the Portuguese on Dec. 15, but a Government spokesman explained that this would not affect the transit of copper from Katanga.

On Dec. 26, 1966, the Portuguese stated that an attack by terrorists from Katanga on the town of Viis Teixeira de Sousa (on the Benguela railway line) on Christmas Day had been repelled, with about 200 (later specified as totalling 243) of the attackers and six civilians (including the local chief of the political police) killed; the terrorists had temporarily cut the railway line. During further fighting between Jan. 15 and 21, 1967, the Portuguese admitted having lost eight soldiers and three civilians killed and 18 soldiers wounded, with unspecified losses among the rebels, of whom several dozen were taken prisoner.

The insurgents, on the other hand, regularly claimed to have inflicted much greater losses on the Portuguese forces than stated by the latter.

Early in August 1963 the “National Liberation Army” directed by the GRAE claimed that 43 Portuguese and 12 Natives had been killed in fighting in the Nambuangongo area, 10 in the Mucondo region, and about 20 near Cavinga–with severe losses by the Nationalists, the Portuguese Air Force having frequently used napalm. A GRAE spokesman said on Aug. 27, 1963, that in the fighting in Northern and Central Angola as well as in the Cabinda enclave the Portuguese had lost more than 340 dead, Nationalist losses being 80 dead and 32 wounded. On Oct. 10, 1963, terrorists killed two men on the Luanda- Malanje railway line, only about 50 miles from the Angolan capital, and the GRAE claimed at the same time that in clashes between Sept. 18 and 27 a total of 40 Portuguese soldiers and 10 African Nationalists had been killed. On Nov. 12, 1963, it announced that its forces hail attacked the Noqui aerodrome, damaged several aircraft, and killed numerous soldiers. For the period Oct. 24 to Nov. 4, 1963, Portuguese casualties were given as several dozen killed.

Early in 1964 the “Liberation Army” claimed to have killed “hundreds” of Portuguese soldiers in action between Jan. 10 and Feb. 1. The Rev. Dr. W. David Grenfell, a Baptist missionary, who had gone to the Congo from Angola, stated on April 7, 1964, that within five weeks another 12,000 Angolan refugees had arrived in the Congo. In August 1964 the MPLA claimed that its forces had killed 29 Portuguese soldiers in Angola on Aug. 9, and later, reporting a battle with two Portuguese Army companies in the Cabinda enclave on May 8, 1965, it asserted that the Portuguese hail lost 62 officers unit men killed. In a communique issued in Algiers by Lite GRAE on June 12, 1965, the Portuguese were alleged to have used poison gas in the Dembos area with the object of “massacring the Angolan fighters” who had recently inflicted “heavy losses on the Salazarist commandos.”

The MPLA claimed in Algiers on Feb. 5, 1966, that during 1965 Angolan Nationalists had killed in all 700 soldiers, and declared that despite difficulties created in neighbouring countries–such as the Congo, where all “patriotic activity” by the MPLA was forbidden–armed resistance to the “colonialist offensive” would increase. On April 9, 1966, the GRAE claimed that its forces had shot down a military aircraft, killing its live occupants, but the Portuguese Defence Ministry denied this. At the same time the MPLA reported a total of 35 Portuguese soldiers killed during the last week of March 1966, with only about 10 guerillas lost, in Northern Angola. On Oct. 7 an MPLA detachment attacked with mortars Portuguese barracks at Massabi in Cabinda, according to an MPLA communique from Brazzaville, while early in 1967 the MPLA claimed that 108 Portuguese had been killed recently in ambushes in Angola and another 55 in Cabinda. A GRAE report referring to the deaths of 237 Portuguese soldiers was denied by the Portuguese Defence Ministry on Jan. 19, 1967.