SUMMARY
Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990. The country has managed avoid major conflicts with domestic rebel groups as a sovereign state. Still the country has reported events of violence as the conflict in neighboring Angola spilled over the border. The Angolan and Namibian conflicts had been during the colonial years but Namibia managed to stay out of the Angolan conflict for many years after Independence. In late 1999 this changed as Namibia agreed to let Angolan forces use Namibian soil in their offensive against UNITA. UNITA reacted by announcing that given the alliance between Luanda and Windoek, it accepted the challenge and ceased to recognise the common border, thus considering the entire area as a zone of war. There was a subsequent upsurge in UNITA cross-border raids, which, in turn, resulted in Namibia's outright military involvement on the side of the government of Angola. This direct military support would continue until the end of the conflict.
Since 1989 Namibia has been affected by intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence as defined by the UCDP, through spillover-events from the Angola: Government conflict and one-sided violence by UNITA. The pre-independence South Africa (Namibia) conflict is viewed as an intrastate conflict within South Africa. Namibia has been a secondary warring party in the Angola: Government conflict and the DR Congo: Government conflict.
Pre-Independence conflict
South West Africa, later named Namibia, had been colonized by Germany since 1884 when the Union of South Africa was given the mandate to administer the territory by the newly formed League of Nations in 1920. More precisely, the mandate was granted to Britain to be administered through South Africa – so in terms of international law, Britain always had the responsibility for Namibia until it eventually achieved independence in 1990.
Following the Second World War, the United Nations invited its members to place their mandates under the UN Trusteeship Council system. All did so except South Africa, which instead organized a referendum among the chiefs of South West Africa and on the strength of the result demanded that the territory be incorporated into the Union. In 1949 South Africa virtually annexed South West Africa into the Union; most of its wealth was diverted to South Africa and the apartheid system was forcefully exported to the annexed territory.
The year 1966 marked the beginning of the armed struggle against the government of South Africa; and it was the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) who spearheaded the liberation movement. Sam Nujoma and Andimba Toivo formed the movement back in 1960, under a different name, with the later-abandoned intent to seek change by peaceful means. Although South Africa was militarily superior, SWAPO through its military wing People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) persisted with its guerrilla warfare until 1989. SWAPO was able to establish bases in southern Angola, following Angola’s 1975 independence from Portugal, which led the Namibian conflict to become inextricably linked to the civil war in Angola. The Angolan (MPLA) government supported SWAPO. In retaliation South Africa supported the Angolan rebel group UNITA. Cuba also provided secondary non-warring support to SWAPO in the form of military training in Angola.
The SWAPO-South Africa conflict began to approach a resolution, as the near end of the Cold War was in sight. At the Reagan/Gorbachev summit in mid-1988, it was decided that Cuban troops would be withdrawn from Angola, and Soviet military aid would cease, as soon as South Africa withdrew from Namibia. In December 1988, the New York Accords were signed comprising a bilateral agreement between Cuba and Angola, and a tripartite agreement between Angola, Cuba and South Africa whereby South Africa agreed to hand over the control of Namibia to the United Nations.
In January 1989, the UN Security Council initiated a transitional process toward independence. The conflict saw further skirmishes in April, but in August 1989 South African President de Klerk declared an end to apartheid in Namibia and an amnesty for SWAPO guerrillas returning home from Angola. In November that same year, national elections were held in which more than 90 per cent of the Namibian population took part and where the SWAPO won a clear majority. Namibia subsequently gained independence on 21 March 1990.
