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Angola ANGOLAN INSURGENCY
The rebels who had coordinated the 1961 uprisings later
began
to undertake effective military organization. The several
nationalist organizations set up training camps and
attracted
external military aid. In the summer of 1961, for example,
the UPA,
which had strong support among the Bakongo, formed the
National
Liberation Army of Angola (Exército de Libertação Nacional
de
Angola -- ELNA), a force of about 5,000 untrained and
poorly armed
troops. Subsequently, groups of Angolans went to Morocco
and
Tunisia to train with Algerian forces, then fighting for
their own
nation's independence. After winning its independence in
1962,
Algeria supplied the ELNA with arms and ammunition.
In March 1962, the UPA joined with another small Kongo
nationalist group, the Democratic Party of Angola (Partido
Democrático de Angola -- PDA) to form the FNLA. The FNLA
immediately proclaimed the Revolutionary Government of
Angola in
Exile (Govêrno Revolucionário de Angola no Exílo--GRAE).
The
president of the FNLA/GRAE, Holden Roberto, declared his
organization to be the sole authority in charge of
anti-Portuguese
military operations inside Angola. Consequently, he
repeatedly
refused to merge his organization with any other budding
nationalist movement, preferring to build the FNLA/GRAE
into an
all-Angolan mass movement over which he would preside.
By 1963, with training and arms from Algeria, bases in
Zaire,
and funds from the Organization of African Unity (OAU),
the
FNLA/GRAE military and political organization was becoming
formidable. Still, it made no significant territorial
gains.
Meanwhile, the MPLA, which had been behind the initial
uprisings in Luanda in February 1961, had suffered a great
deal
from Portuguese reprisals, with many of its militant
leaders dead
or in prison. The rebuilding of the MPLA was substantially
aided in
1962 by the arrival of Agostinho Neto, an assimilated
Mbundu
physician who had spent several years in jail for
expressing his
political views and had recently escaped from detention in
Portugal. Neto attempted to bring together the MPLA and
Roberto's
FNLA/GRAE, but his efforts were thwarted by Roberto's
insistence
that his organization represented all Angolans.
Initially based in Kinshasa, as was the FNLA/GRAE, in
1963 the
MPLA shifted its headquarters to Brazzaville (in
present-day Congo)
because of Roberto's close ties to Zairian president
Mobutu Sese
Seko. From Brazzaville, the MPLA launched small guerrilla
operations in Cabinda, but the movement was militarily far
weaker
than the FNLA. Moreover, it lacked an operations base from
which it
could reach the densely populated north and center of
Angola.
As it dragged on into 1964 and 1965, the conflict
became
stalemated. Hampered by insufficient financial assistance,
the
insurgents were unable to maintain offensive operations
against a
fully equipped Portuguese military force that had
increased to a
strength of more than 40,000. The FNLA settled into a
mountain
stronghold straddling the border of Uíge and Zaire
provinces and
continued to carry on guerrilla activities. The insurgents
found it
increasingly difficult to sustain the cohesion they had
achieved
after 1961 and 1962. Between 1963 and 1965, differences in
leadership, programs, and following between the FNLA and
the MPLA
led to open hostilities that seriously weakened each
group's
strength and effectiveness.
Data as of February 1989
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