Word: unita
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Also in Kinshasa last week was Jonas Savimbi, leader of the third warring faction, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Savimbi spoke grandly of airlifting some 5,000 UNITA troops from the south to reinforce the crumbling F.N.L.A.-an obviously suicidal move, if he really means what he said. Savimbi's forces were giving ground to intensified M.P.L.A. attacks, which were also led by Cubans. At the same time, the infamous and disorderly F.N.L.A. "Chipenda column," a semiautonomous force of some 1,200 that is supposedly allied to UNITA, was doing more...
Major Setback. In fact, the M.P.L.A. captured the town of Cela, just 100 miles north of the UNITA capital of Huambo. That is a major setback for UNITA and its South African allies, who used the city as their principal forward supply base. Further to the east, UNITA commanders near Luso claimed to have repulsed an attack by 1,000 M.P.L.A. troops, spearheaded by 500 Cubans and backed by Soviet advisers. At both Cela and Luso, South African artillery supporting UNITA troops played a major role in blocking M.P.L.A. advances...
With the Cubans and South Africans both so actively engaged, one Western intelligence source argued that "the war is increasingly out of the hands of the locals." UNITA commanders at Cela reported that "there are virtually no African faces in the enemy ranks." Soviet arms, including shipments of 122-mm. multiple rocket launchers, T-34 assault tanks and helicopter gunships, were largely responsible for the Cuban-led M.P.L.A.'s advances. Meanwhile, reinforcements continue to arrive on daily flights from Havana. There are an estimated 10,000 Cuban troops now in Angola; at the rate they are arriving, there could...
South African assistance to UNITA is on a much smaller scale. There are perhaps 1,000 regular South African soldiers near the fighting fronts and 2,000 to 3,000 further back, based at Sá da Bandeira or near the Cunene River. Nonetheless, their involvement in the civil war is crucial to UNITA's survival. The South Africans man the heavy equipment-principally Panhard armored cars, 130-mm. artillery pieces and Puma helicopters-that provides UNITA with mobility and firepower...
Military Stalemate. Some South Africans hope that with their help, UNITA can hold the M.P.L.A. to a military stalemate. That in turn might induce M.P.L.A. Leader Agostinho Neto to accept a power-sharing agreement with Savimbi, who is solidly backed by the Ovimbundu, Angola's largest tribal group. In that case, Pretoria could offer to withdraw its forces on condition that the Cubans and Soviets do the same...