Angola Liberation Movements in Cabinda
Several movements advocating a separate status for
Cabinda were
founded in the early 1960s, all of them basing their
claims on
their own interpretation of Cabindan history. The most
important of
these was the Movement for the Liberation of the Enclave
of Cabinda
(Mouvement pour la Libération de l'Enclave de
Cabinda--MLEC), led
by Luis Ranque Franque, which had evolved out of various
émigré
associations in Brazzaville. In December 1961, a faction
of the
MLEC headed by Henriques Tiago Nzita seceded to form the
Action
Committee for the National Union of Cabindans (Comité
d'Action
d'Union Nationale des Cabindais--CAUNC). A third group,
Alliance of
Mayombe (Alliance de Mayombe--Alliama), led by António
Eduardo
Sozinho, represented the Mayombe (also spelled Maiombe),
the ethnic
minority of the enclave's interior. The three groups
resolved their
differences and united in 1963 as the Front for the
Liberation of
the Enclave of Cabinda (Frente para a Libertação do
Enclave de
Cabinda--FLEC). When the MPLA began its military
incursions into
Cabinda in 1964, it encountered hostility not only from
coastal
members of FLEC who were living in and near the town of
Cabinda but
also from Mayombe peasants, whose region near the Congo
frontier
MPLA guerrillas had to cross.
Emulating the FNLA, FLEC created a government in exile
on
January 10, 1967, in the border town of Tshela in Zaire.
Reflecting
earlier divisions, however, the faction headed by Nzita
established
the Revolutionary Cabindan Committee (Comité
Révolutionnaire
Cabindais) in the Congolese town of Pointe Noire.
Data as of February 1989
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