SUMMARY

FLEC-FAC-TN (Frente da Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda - Forças Armadas de Cabinda - Tiago Nzita faction; Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda - Armed Forces of Cabinda - Tiago Nzita faction) was a separatist rebel group that fought an intrastate armed conflict over territory against the Government of Angola. FLEC-FAC-TN’s goal was to achieve independence for Cabinda, a province and exclave of Angola with abundant oil reserves.

The separatist movement in Cabinda began to materialize in the 1960s, and was originally pursued by groups such as the MLEC (Movement for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda), CUAC (Comite d’Action d’Union Nationale de Cabindais) and Alliama (Alliance of the Mayombe). The President of Congo-Brazzaville, Fulbert Youlou, pushed hard for the unification of Cabinda’s separatist movements, which resulted in the merger of these groups into FLEC (Frente da Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda) in 1963; the leader of FLEC was Ranque Franque. In 1967, FLEC created a “government of Cabinda in exile”, which failed to receive any substantial international recognition. The FLEC would however receive considerable moral, organizational, and material support from the neighboring states Zaire (now DR Congo) and Congo-Brazzaville. FLEC was not invited to the 1975 talks between the other Angolan liberation movements (MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA) and Portugal, where the matters of Angola’s independence were discussed. Following independence, FLEC engaged in a low-intensity guerrilla struggle against the Government of Angola. In 1975, FLEC fractionalized into several splinter groups (the “Franque”, “Nzita”, and “Lubota” factions respectively) in 1975, and then again in 1977 to create the CMLC (Military Command for the Liberation of Cabinda). After further fractionalization in the 1980s and 1990s, the FLEC-FAC and FLEC-R were consolidated as the major Cabindan separatist factions. In late July 2010 FLEC-FAC splintered again when the then-chief of staff Stanislas Boma and Alexandre Tati contacted Luanda to open up for talks. Tiago Nzita immediately expelled the leaders from the group. Since the expelled commanders, Alexandre Tati, Estanislau Boma, José Veras, and Carlos Moses, constituted the backbone of the FLEC’s armed wing their faction is considered to be the continuation of FLEC-FAC while Tiago Nzita continued to control the political FLEC-FAC and the European diaspora forming the FLEC-FAC - Tiago Nzita faction. Earlier the same year, Joel Batila, a former FLEC-FAC secretary general, had broken away from the group and declared himself the “prime minister of the Republic of Kabinda”.

FLEC-FAC-TN was led by Henriques Tiago Nzita until his death on 3 June 2016 when Tiago Nzita's son Emmanuel Nzita wa Nzita was appointed new leader of the political front.