Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first President of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and the first president of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) in 1960. Before 1960, SWAPO was known as the Ovambo People's Organisation (OPO). He played an important role as leader of the national liberation movement in campaigning for Namibia's political independence from South African rule. He established the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) in 1962 and launched a guerrilla war against the apartheid government of South Africa in August 1966 at Omugulugwombashe, beginning after the United Nations withdrew the mandate for South Africa to govern the territory. Nujoma led SWAPO during the lengthy Namibian War of Independence, which lasted from 1966 to 1989.
The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Namibia had been occupied by South Africa since 1915, first under a League of Nations mandate and later illegally. Since 1966, South African forces had been combating an insurgency by the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of the Namibian-nationalist South West African People's Organization (SWAPO). The UN Security Council passed Resolution 435 in 1978, which set out a plan for elections administered by South Africa but under UN supervision and control after a ceasefire. However, only in 1988 were the two parties able to agree to a ceasefire. As UNTAG began to deploy peacekeepers, military observers, police, and political workers, hostilities were briefly renewed on the day the transition process was supposed to begin. After a new round of negotiations, a second date was set and the elections process began in earnest. Elections for the constitutional assembly took place in November 1989. They were peaceful and declared free and fair; SWAPO won a majority of the seats. The new constitution was adopted four months later and it was followed by Namibia's official independence and the successful conclusion of UNTAG.
The Agreement among the People's Republic of Angola, the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of South Africa granted independence to Namibia from South Africa and ended the direct involvement of foreign troops in the Angolan Civil War. The accords were signed on 22 December 1988 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City by the Foreign Ministers of People's Republic of Angola, Republic of Cuba and Republic of South Africa.
United Nations Commissioner for South West Africa was a post created by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1966 to assert the UN's direct responsibility for South West Africa which was then under illegal occupation by apartheid South Africa.
The Cuban intervention in Angola began on the 5th of November 1975, when Cuba sent combat troops in support of the communist-aligned People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against the pro-western coalition of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The intervention came after the outbreak of the Angolan Civil War, which occurred after the former Portuguese colony was granted independence after the Angolan War of Independence. The previously unimportant civil war quickly became a proxy war between the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc. South Africa and the United States backed UNITA and the FNLA, while communist nations backed the MPLA.
Foreign relations of South Africa during apartheid refers to the foreign relations of South Africa between 1948 and 1994. South Africa introduced apartheid in 1948, as a systematic extension of pre-existing racial discrimination laws. Initially the regime implemented an offensive foreign policy trying to consolidate South African hegemony over Southern Africa. These attempts had clearly failed by the late 1970s. As a result of its racism, occupation of Namibia and foreign interventionism in Angola, the country became increasingly isolated internationally.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 424 was adopted unanimously on March 17, 1978; after hearing representations from Zambia, the Council expressed concern at unprovoked attacks against the country by the "illegal racist regime" in Southern Rhodesia, which resulted in deaths and destruction of property in Zambia. The Rhodesian Security Forces maintained that they had been attacking guerrilla bases in the country.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 428, adopted unanimously on May 6, 1978, after hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola, Zambia and the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), the Council reminded Member States to refrain from using threats and use of force in their international relations. Reiterating Resolution 387 (1976), the present resolution condemned South Africa for its armed invasion of Angola via South West Africa (Namibia).
United Nations Security Council resolution 447, adopted on 28 March 1979, after hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola and the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), the Council recalled resolutions 387 (1976) and 428 (1978) and condemned South Africa for its continuing raids in direct violation of prior resolutions.
United Nations Security Council resolution 454 was adopted on 2 November 1979. After hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola, the Council recalled resolutions 387 (1976) and 447 (1979), noting its concern and condemned the continuing attacks on the country by South Africa through illegally-occupied South West Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 466, adopted unanimously on 11 April 1980, after hearing representations from Zambia and recalling 455 (1979), the council condemned the continued and unprovoked attacks on Zambia by South Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 475, adopted on 27 June 1980, after hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola, the Council recalled resolutions 387 (1976), 447 (1979) and 454 (1979), and expressed its concern and condemned the continuing attacks on the country by South Africa through occupied South West Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 532, adopted almost unanimously on 31 May 1983, after hearing a report from the Secretary-General and reaffirming resolutions 301 (1971), 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978), 435 (1978) and 439 (1978), the Council condemned South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia, then known as South West Africa. All voted in favour other than France, who abstained.
United Nations Security Council resolution 539, adopted on 28 October 1983, after hearing a report from the Secretary-General and reaffirming resolutions 301 (1971), 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978), 435 (1978), 439 (1978) and 532 (1983), the council condemned South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia, then known as South West Africa, and the tension and instability prevailing in southern Africa as a result.
United Nations Security Council resolution 566, adopted on 19 June 1985, after recalling resolutions 269 (1969), 276 (1970), 301 (1971), 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978), 435 (1978), 439 (1978), 532 (1983) and 539 (1983), the Council expressed concern at the tension and instability caused the continued occupation of Namibia by South Africa, noting the apartheid policies implemented in the territory and that the territory was used as a springboard for attacks on other southern African countries.
United Nations Security Council resolution 567, adopted unanimously on 20 June 1985, after hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola, the Council recalled resolutions including 387 (1976), 428 (1978), 447 (1979), 454 (1979), 475 (1980), 545 (1983) and 546 (1984), and expressed its concern at the continuing attacks on the country by South Africa through occupied South West Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 571, adopted unanimously on 20 September 1985, after hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola, the Council recalled resolutions including 387 (1976), 418 (1977), 428 (1978), 447 (1979), 454 (1979), 475 (1980), 545 (1983) and 546 (1984), and expressed its concern at the continuing attacks on the country by South Africa through occupied South West Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 574, adopted unanimously on 7 October 1985, after hearing representations from the People's Republic of Angola, the Council recalled resolutions 387 (1976), 418 (1977), 428 (1978), 447 (1979), 454 (1979), 475 (1980), 545 (1983), 546 (1984), 567 (1985) and 571 (1985), and expressed its concern at the continuing attacks on the country by South Africa through occupied South West Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 577, adopted unanimously on 6 December 1985, after reaffirming Resolution 571 (1985), the Council endorsed a report by the Security Council Commission of Investigation, condemning the regime in South Africa for its continued and unprovoked attacks against the People's Republic of Angola through the occupied territory of South West Africa.
United Nations Security Council resolution 643, adopted unanimously on 31 October 1989, after reaffirming resolutions 435 (1978) and 629 (1989), 632 (1989) and 640 (1989), as well as noting a report by the Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the council expressed its full intention to implement Resolution 435 of 29 September 1978 regarding the situation in Namibia.
