Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984 Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984 In the Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984, signed 19 March 1984 in Havana by president José Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola and Fidel Castro, premier of Cuba, the two countries agreed to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola after the withdrawal of South African troops from Angola and Namibia, and after UN-Security Council resolution 435 on Namibian independence was strictly applied. Soon after getting independence from Portugal in 1975, civil war was fought among the three leading groups in Angola. Angola's three main guerrilla groups agreed to establish a transitional government in January 1975. Within two
Cuban intervention in Angola diamonds. The civil war ended in 2002 after Jonas Savimbi was killed in battle. Cuban intervention in Angola In November 1975, on the eve of Angola's independence, Cuba launched a large-scale military intervention in support of the leftist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against United States-backed interventions by South Africa and Zaire in support of two right-wing independence movements competing for power in the country, the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). By the end of 1975 the Cuban military in Angola numbered more than 25,000