Angola Messiant

As of mid-1976, the civil war in Angola was seemingly decided: supported by a large contingent of Cuban forces, the MPLA established itself in power in Luanda. Its native competitors, the US-French-Zaire-supported FNLA, and UNITA, supported by China and South Africa, were in tatters. The French and Zaire-supported FLEC – an armed movement for the independence of the oil-rich Cabinda enclave – was in disarray. The last few of their surviving units were either driven out of the country, or forced into hiding in isolated corners of northern and southeastern Angola.

Through late 1987 and early 1988, the battlefields of southern Angola moved ever further away from the border with South West Africa/Namibia, until the showdown between the Soviet and Cuban-supported government in Luanda and South African-supported insurgency of UNITA culminated in the controversial and still much disputed Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.

War of Intervention in Angola, Volume 4 continues the coverage of the operational history of the Angolan Air Force and Air Defense Force (FAPA/DAA) as told by Angolan and Cuban sources, in the period 1985-1988.