Angolan Civil War

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in southern Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on... the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Portuguese were present in some—mostly coastal—points of the territory of what is now Angola, from the 16th to the 19th century, interacting in diverse ways with the peoples that lived there. In the 19th century they slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. Angola as a Portuguese colony encompassing the present territory was not established before the end of the 19th century, and "effective occupation", as required by the Berlin Conference was achieved only by the 1920s. Independence was achieved in 1975, after a protracted liberation war. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002.
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The South African Border War, commonly referred to as the Angolan Bush War in South Africa, was a conflict that took place from 1966 to 1989 in... South-West Africa and Angola between South Africa and its allied forces on the one side and the Angolan government, South-West Africa People's Organisation , and their allies on the other. It was closely intertwined with the Angolan Civil War and the Namibian War of Independence. The roots of the conflict can be traced back to World War I. In 1915 South Africa invaded and conquered the then German South-West Africa on behalf of the Allied Forces. After five years of South African military rule, the territory was granted to South Africa as a C-class mandate by the League of Nations in 1920. After World War II, the League of Nations dissolved and the South African government of Jan Smuts hoped to be able to take over the territory. They formally applied to the United Nations in 1946 for this, but their request was refused, because the indigenous people had not been adequately consulted.
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The Battle of Cassinga, Cassinga Raid or Kassinga Massacre was a controversial South African airborne attack on a South West Africa People's... Organization refugee camp and military base at the former town of Cassinga, Angola on 4 May 1978. Conducted as one of the three major actions of Operation Reindeer during the South African Border War, it was the South African Army’s first major air assault. By the beginning of 1978 SWAPO had improved its organization and gained strength in Owambo and the Eastern Caprivi, UNITA was under pressure and it became increasingly difficult for the SADF to operate in Southern Angola. According to the South African chief of staff operations it was "imperative to deploy the full strength of the SADF's air and land capability against SWAPO, instead of counting on a 'hearts and minds' programme." South Africa also feared the disruption of elections it planned to hold in South West Africa excluding SWAPO. The attack on Cassinga grew out of the plan for Operation Bruilof, which had envisaged attacking six SWAPO targets around the town of Chetequera.
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