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Angola The Development of FAPLA
In the early 1960s, the MPLA named its guerrilla forces
the
People's Army for the Liberation of Angola (Exército
Popular de
Libertação de Angola -- EPLA). Many of its first cadres
had
received training in Morocco and Algeria. In January 1963,
in one
of its early operations, the EPLA attacked a Portuguese
military
post in Cabinda, killing a number of troops. During the
mid-1960s
and early 1970s, the EPLA operated very successfully from
bases in
Zambia against the Portuguese in eastern Angola. After
1972,
however, the EPLA's effectiveness declined following
several
Portuguese victories, disputes with FNLA forces, and the
movement
of about 800 guerrillas from Zambia to Congo.
On August 1, 1974, a few months after a military coup
d'état
had overthrown the Lisbon regime and proclaimed its
intention of
granting independence to Angola, the MPLA announced the
formation
of the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola
(Forças
Armadas Populares de Libertação de Angola -- FAPLA), which
replaced
the EPLA. By 1976 FAPLA had been transformed from lightly
armed
guerrilla units into a national army capable of sustained
field
operations. This transformation was gradual until the
Soviet-Cuban
intervention and ensuing UNITA insurgency, when the sudden
and
large-scale inflow of heavy weapons and accompanying
technicians
and advisers quickened the pace of institutional change.
Unlike African states that acceded to independence by
an
orderly and peaceful process of institutional transfer,
Angola
inherited a disintegrating colonial state whose army was
in
retreat. Although Mozambique's situation was similar in
some
respects, the confluence of civil war, foreign
intervention, and
large-scale insurgency made Angola's experience unique.
After
independence, FAPLA had to reorganize for conventional war
and
counterinsurgency simultaneously and immediately to
continue the
new war with South Africa and UNITA. Ironically, a
guerrilla army
that conducted a successful insurgency for more than a
decade came
to endure the same kind of exhausting struggle for a
similar
period.
Data as of February 1989
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