Hands Off the People’s Republic of Angola: Africa Stands Firm Against Imperialism
On 13 January 1976, Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), William Aurelien Eteki Mboumoua, issued a statement on the OAU Extra-Ordinary Meeting of African Heads of State and Government that was held in Addis Ababa from 10 – 12 January 1976. The meeting was specifically convened to address the War in Angola, foreign intervention in the country and the issue of recognising the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) as the legitimate government of the People’s Republic of Angola.
The main purpose of the meeting was to find a unified African solution to the Angolan crisis, which had become a proxy war with the direct military involvement of apartheid South Africa in support of opposition movements and the intervention of extra-continental powers, such as the United States and the Soviet Union.
The meeting had to discuss the complex situation in Angola following its independence from Portugal in November 1975, which had immediately descended into a large-scale war involving three rival liberation movements: the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which was supported by the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) factions, which were backed by the United States and apartheid South Africa.
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