Beginnings of the Northern Front in Angola
On 7 October 1987, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) dispatched two companies totalling 200 men and women to the area between Angola’s Uige, Cuanza Norte and Bengo Provinces, as the need heightened to protect the transport links connecting the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) camp networks in the north of Luanda against attacks by UNITA (Union for the Total Independence of Angola) forces, which were supported by the United States and apartheid South Africa.
The operational zone for the “Northern Front” was in contrast to the “Eastern Front” campaign that was undertaken in 1983 to 1984, which was centred in Malanje Province. For instance, during the Northern Front campaign, unlike in the Eastern Front, the contingent forces were exclusively MK, with little or no FAPLA (People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola) admixture. The Angolan FAPLA forces were heavily committed in the fight in the southern part of the country alongside the Cuban Revolutionary Army and PLAN (People’s Liberation Army of Namibia – of the South West African People’s Organisation – SWAPO) forces trying to repel an apartheid South African Defence Force (SADF) invasion.
UNITA had opened another front in the provinces of Zaire, Uige, Lunda and Cuanza Norte since 1986. During February and March 1986, UNITA forces captured three towns in the central provinces of Cuanza Norte, Uige, Huile and Lunda in which FAPLA forces were being continu
