Angola rolls out red carpet for ex-enemies

MENONGUE: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1987 to 1988 is regarded as the largest battle on African soil since World War II.  It was a turning point in the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. The battle was between Angola’s ruling MPLA (People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola) supported by Cuba while UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) was mainly supported by the apartheid regime’s South African Defence Force (SADF). Interestingly, both sides still claim victory.

Although MPLA’s objective was to crush UNITA, while SADF wanted to block the communist MPLA from extending over to the Cuito River down to the border with South West Africa (Namibia). The bigger picture for the colonisers was that the battle was just a proxy war in the Cold War between USSR (now Russia) and the US.