Antonio da Costa Fernandes

Last updated

Antonio da Costa Fernandes (born 18 October 1935) is an Angolan politician. He served as UNITA's representative to the United Kingdom. [1] Along with Jonas Savimbi, he was co-founder of UNITA.

Angola country in Africa

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a west-coast country of south-central Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa, bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and largest city of Angola is Luanda.

UNITA political party

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan War for Independence (1961–1975) and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war (1975–2002). The war was one of the most prominent Cold War proxy wars, with UNITA receiving military aid from the United States and South Africa while the MPLA received support from the Soviet Union and its allies.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Costa Fernandes studied with Savimbi, the future leader of UNITA, in Switzerland. In November 1963 they went to Portugal, planning an uprising against Portuguese colonial authorities in Angola.

Switzerland federal republic in Western Europe

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western, central and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8.5 million people is concentrated mostly on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva.

Portugal Republic in Southwestern Europe

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe. It is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments.

Later, when UNITA allied with the People's Republic of China, Costa Fernandes recruited the first refugees in Zambia to go to China for military training. He went along with fourteen other men. [1]

Zambia republic in southern Africa

Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in south-central Africa. It neighbours the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, and it is located in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest, the core economic hubs of the country.

Related Research Articles

History of Angola aspect of history

Angola is a country in southwestern Africa. The country's name derives from the Kimbundu word for king. It was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. From the 15th century, Portuguese colonists began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. After the Angolan War of Independence, which ended with an army mutiny and leftist coup in Lisbon, Angola's independence was achieved on November 11, 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola later entered a period of civil war that lasted up until 2002.

Jonas Savimbi Angolan political and military leader

Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was an anti-communist and anti-colonialist Angolan political and military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Moxico Province Province in Angola

Moxico or Moshiko is the largest province of Angola. It has an area of 223,023 square kilometres (86,110 sq mi), and covers 18% of the landmass of Angola. The province has a population of 727,594 and a population density of approximately 2.8 residents per km², making it one of the most sparsely populated areas of Angola. The population of the province is in flux; displaced residents have slowly returned to Moxico since the end of the Angolan Civil War in 2002. The war left Moxico as one of the most landmine-contaminated places in the world. The governor of the province is Gonçalves Manuel Muandumba.

Isaías Samakuva Leader of União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola,

Isaías Henrique Ngola Samakuva is an Angolan politician who has been the President of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) since June 2003.

Angolan Civil War armed conflict in Angola between 1975 and 2002

The Angolan Civil War was a civil conflict in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was a power struggle between two former liberation movements, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The war was used as a surrogate battleground for the Cold War by rival states such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa and the United States.

General António Sebastião Dembo served as Vice President (1992–2002) and later President (2002) of UNITA, an anti-Communist rebel group that fought against the MPLA in the Angolan Civil War.

General Paulo Armindo Lukamba "Gato" led UNITA, a former anti-colonial movement that fought against the MPLA in the Angolan Civil War, from the death of António Dembo on March 3, 2002 until he lost the 2003 leadership election to Isaías Samakuva.

Jeremias Chitunda Angolan politician

Jeremias Kalandula Chitunda served as the Vice President of UNITA until his assassination in Luanda, as part of the Halloween Massacre shortly after the first round of the presidential election, held on September 29–30. He was UNITA's second in command, after UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi.

The Lusaka Protocol, initialed in Lusaka, Zambia on October 31, 1994, attempted to end the Angolan Civil War by integrating and disarming UNITA and starting national reconciliation. Both sides signed a truce as part of the protocol on November 15.1994 and the treaty was signed on November 20, 1994

In the 1980s in Angola, fighting spread outward from the southeast, where most of the fighting had taken place in the 1970s, as the African National Congress (ANC) and SWAPO increased their activity. The South African government responded by sending troops back into Angola, intervening in the war from 1981 to 1987, prompting the Soviet Union to deliver massive amounts of military aid from 1981 to 1986. The USSR gave the Angolan government over US$2 billion in aid in 1984. In 1981, newly elected United States President Ronald Reagan's U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Chester Crocker, developed a linkage policy, tying Namibian independence to Cuban withdrawal and peace in Angola.

David "Samwimbila" Chingunji served as a top commander in UNITA, who became pro-Western rebels in the subsequent Angolan Civil War (1975-2002).

Fernando Wilson dos Santos served as the representative of UNITA, a rebel group in Angola, to Portugal. His brother-in-law, Tito Chingunji, served as Foreign Secretary of UNITA, the principal rebel group that fought against the dos Santos government in Angola's civil war.

In the 1990s in Angola, the last decade of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), the Angolan government transitioned from a nominally communist state to a nominally democratic one, a move made possible by political changes abroad and military victories at home. Namibia's declaration of independence, internationally recognized on April 1, eliminated the southwestern front of combat as South African forces withdrew to the east. The MPLA abolished the one-party system in June and rejected Marxist-Leninism at the MPLA's third Congress in December, formally changing the party's name from the MPLA-PT to the MPLA. The National Assembly passed law 12/91 in May 1991, coinciding with the withdrawal of the last Cuban troops, defining Angola as a "democratic state based on the rule of law" with a multi-party system.

Tony da Costa Fernandes served as the Foreign Minister of UNITA, a rebel group in Angola. In the 1990s Fernandes and UNITA Interior Minister General Miguel N'Zau Puna allegedly uncovered the fact that UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi ordered the assassinations of both Wilson dos Santos, UNITA's representative to Portugal, and Tito Chingunji, one of Costa Fernandes' predecessors. Dos Santos and Chingunji's deaths and the defections of Fernandes and Puna weakened the U.S.-UNITA relationship and seriously harmed Savimbi's international reputation.

Peoples Republic of Angola

The People's Republic of Angola was the self-declared socialist state which governed Angola from its independence in 1975 until 1992, during the Angolan Civil War.

This article deals with the activities of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Angola. The list of activities may be incomplete due to the clandestine nature of the subject matter.

Youth of MPLA

The Youth of MPLA is a major mass organization within the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Party of Labour, along with the Organização da Mulher Angolana, União Nacional dos Trabalhadores Angolanos and the Organização de Pioneiros de Agostinho Neto.

Elias Malungo Bravo da Costa Pedro, more commonly known by his nom de guerreKalias, was a lieutenant general of the Angolan Armed Forces.

References

  1. 1 2 Brittain, Victoria (1998). Death of Dignity: Angola's Civil War. p. 10.