Cease Fire – 1998

Written by

« Back to Provision

Cease Fire – 1998

1998

No Implementation No implementation

In March, 2 UN helicopters were shot at by UNITA troops in the Cambundi Catembo area, which was under UNITA control. Another similar attack on a UN helicopter took place on 18 February in Malanje Province.1

MONUA reported that “Armed attacks against villages, local government authorities, as well as United Nations and other international personnel, have become an almost permanent feature.”2

MONUA observers confirmed various troop movements of the Angolan Armed Forces “in Malange, Uige, Huambo, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul Provinces.”3

Major-General Phillip Sibanda of the Zimbabwean army, the former commander of the United Nations Observer Force in Angola, stated that his view of local conditions indicated that the FAA and UNITA were engaged in a “military build-up” to possibly resume war.4

Over 200 people died in a massacre in the small village of Mussuku as surrounding troops bombed the village. The government stated that UNITA was responsible for the attack and declared that it would retaliate against UNITA. “The government cannot cross its arms when UNITA is kidnapping young people and forcing them into military training, acquiring military equipment, sabotaging the country’s infrastructure and attacking and occupying strategic places.” 5

In the last issuance of 1998, MONUA reported that the Angolan government and UNITA forces had continued to conduct extensive military operations and that MONUA personnel, under phase IV of their security plan, would withdraw from all provinces.6

Media sources reported that the Angolan countryside was at war.7

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program coded the conflict between the Angolan government and UNITA as reaching the threshold of “war” in 1998 with over 1000 total deaths in the year.8

  1. “Angola Peace Monitor,” Africa News 4, no. 7 (March 1998).
  2. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA),” U.N. Security Council (S/1998/524), June 17, 1998.
  3. Ibid.
  4. “UN Military Commander Says War Build-Up Underway in Angola,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, June 2, 1998.
  5. “Angola Nears Civil War Outbreak: After Four Years, Peace Talks End Amid Massacre,” The Ottawa Citizen, July 26, 1998.
  6. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA),” U.N. Security Council (S/1998/1110), November 23, 1998.
  7. “UNITA: Back to the Path of War,” Africa News, August 5, 1998.
  8. “UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia,” Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), accessed February 22, 2013, www.ucdp.uu.se/database.