SUMMARY

UNITA made use of one-sided violence throughout the long-lasting intra-state conflict with the Government of Angola. The group stopped killing civilians as soon as the final peace agreement marking the end of the conflict in April 2002 was signed.

There appears to have been a range of typical targets and typical motives for UNITA one-sided violence: The rebels raided villages and killed suspected supporters of the Angolan government. The killing of family members of potential troops in order to intimidate and forcefully recruit was commonplace. UNITA-affiliated civilians were killed because UNITA leader Savimbi feared to be overthrown by rivals within UNITA. He eliminated not only the most promising of his closest assistants but also ordered to kill their families including small children. According to researchers, he also used public punishment including public killings to instill fear in the UNITA members. Some victims were accused of witchcraft. Especially civilians that did not belong to the Ovimbundu, the ethnic group of most UNITA fighters, were killed.

Killings as public punishment included burning at the stake and the use of heavy vehicles to crush victims. In order to save ammunition, knives and machetes were often used. Abductions of civilians for general tasks and sexual slavery were also commonplace. Foreign workers were abducted for forced labor, to obtain ransom money, or to close down commercial operations and paralyzing the Angolan economy.

While most one-sided violence was located in Angola, sporadic attacks were committed in Namibia towards the end of the conflict.

UNITA first became active as a one-sided actor in the UCDP datasets in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 3 August that year when the group attacked several vehicles and killed the passengers in northwest Kwanza-Norte province. However, UNITA is reported to have used one-sided violence earlier.