SUMMARY
The Government of Angola, dominated by the former pro-independence group MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) was blamed by its long-time rival, the rebel group UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, Union for the Total Independence of Angola) for massacring civilians during the intra-state armed conflict that shattered Angola from 1975 to 2002. However, due to the lack of investigations in alleged targeted killings of civilians, this could not be substantiated. After the end of the conflict, the Government of Angola increased its effort to fight back another insurgency located in the Angolan exclave Cabinda. There is evidence that the Government of Angola used one-sided violence as part of the campaign against the secessionist movement in Cabinda.
According to international and local human rights organizations, the Government of Angola executed civilians suspected of being supporters of the Cabindan rebel groups, FLEC-FAC (Frente para a Libertaçâo do Enclave de Cabinda-Forças Armadas de Cabinda, Front of Liberation of the State of Cabinda-Armed Forces of Cabinda) and FLEC-R (Frente para a Libertaçâo do Enclave de Cabinda-Renovada, Front of Liberation of the State of Cabinda-Renewed). The execution of some civilians appears to have been an act of revenge for the killings of fellow government troops. There were reports of mass killings as part of ‘cleansing operations’ during the conflict as well as individual executions of the victims.
Apart from one-sided violence that was related to the conflict over Cabinda (see Angola: Cabinda), there were reports of executions of civilians, who refused to obey or to pay bribes and of critics of the government. There were also incidents of extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals.
The Government of Angola first became active as a one-sided actor in the UCDP datasets in 1997, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in December that year when government troops attacked villages in Miconje district in Cabinda.
