ANGOLA— A BUFFER ZONE
THREE PROVINCES DECLARED DISASTER AREAS IN MOST SERIOUS INCURSIONS TO DATE
"Operation Protea", a heavily armoured series of incursions launched by South African forces into southern Angola on 23 August 1981, can with confidence be said to have ushered in an even more serious stage of the conflict in Southern Africa. The Operation marked the culmination of a well-developed strategy of aggression against the People's Republic of Angola, stretching back to 1975, and had been clearly predicted by the Angolan defence authorities in a series of communiques issued during August 1981. It was preceded at the end of July by an earlier invasion of Angola's Kunene province and the occupation of seven towns (see FOCUS 36 pp. 1 & 4).
"Operation Protea" has nevertheless persuaded many observers and analysts that, in Angola at least, Pretoria's strategy against the Front Line States has moved beyond attempts to destabilise the government and cause the maximum possible social and economic disruption, damage and confusion, to the establishment of a buffer zone in the south of Angola, through the conquest and occupation on a more or less permanent basis (making use of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA forces as protégés), of huge tracts of the southern provinces.
SCALE AND DURATION
Operation Protea, the largest and most serious South African aggression against Angola to date in terms of its scale, the intensity of the conflict and the damage wrought (see FACTS & FIGURES), caught the attention of the British and other overseas press during late August-early September in a way that previous South African raids into Angola have not. According to estimates from the Angolan government and defence authorities, a total of 11,000 South African troops were deployed inside Angola; virtually the whole of Kunene province was under South African occupation for a period of almost three weeks; and three other provinces, Kuando-Kubango, Moçâmedes and Huila, suffered incursions by ground and helicopter-borne troops extending up to 300 km inside Angola, as well as air bombing raids and reconnaissance flights.
Exactly a month after the launch of Operation Protea, and despite a series of South African claims (repeated from 27/28 August onwards) that its troops were in the process of being withdrawn from Angola, South African forces were still occupying parts of Kunene province. A communique issued by the Angolan Ministry of Defence on 22 September stated, further, that land incursions and air reconnaissance flights by South African forces were continuing, involving the bombardment and machine-gunning of villages and civilian columns. Ngiva, the capital of Kunene province, had however been recaptured by the Angolan armed forces, FAPLA (BBC/MS 24.9.81).
SOUTH AFRICAN PREPARATIONS
Both inside Angola and along the northern Namibian border, various strategic manoeuvres were carried out by the South African Defence Force (SADF) during August to position South African forces in readiness for the launch of Operation Protea. Locations inside Angola (notably the commune of Evale) were in fact occupied continuously by South African ground troops, supported by jet bombers, helicopters, armoured cars and heavy artillery, from the end of July onwards (see FOCUS 36 op. cit.). On 14 August, South African forces in Ombala-Yo-Mongo, Naulila, Mupa and Anhanca were reported by the Angolan Ministry of Defence to be "massacring the civilian population, burning houses, robbing the people's property, killing cattle, occupying places from where the people get water, bombing and ambushing and placing mines on the Ngiva-Xangongo and Ngiva-Cuvelai roads. Raids and engagements occurred throughout this period; on 15 August, for example, fierce fighting took place between Angolan forces and South African ground troops more than 100 km inside Angola in the area between Xangongo and Cahama. Penetration by South African jet fighters and bombing raids extended up to 150 km inside the country (communiques issued by the Angolan Ministry of Defence, 13/14/17.8.81).
On 22 August, the Angolan Ministry of Defence reported that "heavy concentrations" of South African troops and weapons, together with foreign mercenaries and members of UNITA, had been building up over the previous two days along the Angolan - Namibian border and in the direction of Ngiva, Kunene's capital. On 21 August, a major violation of Angolan airspace occurred when 10 planes of the South African Air Force entered with the objective of cutting off supplies of emergency foodstuffs for the population of Kunene and of preventing air traffic to Ngiva from Luanda, via Lubango. "We must at this moment expect a large-scale attack against Ngiva", the communique concluded, leading to "serious consequences... (and) increasing tension in this part of the African continent" (communique issued 22.8.81).
OPERATION PROTEA LAUNCHED
On 23 August the municipality of Cahama and the commune of Tchibemba (more than 300 km inside Angola), were destroyed in a South African bombing raid involving six Mirage jets and two Buccaneers. SAAF reconnaissance flights took place in the Ngiva area and over Porto Alexandre, Angola's southernmost port, in Moçâmedes province.
On 24 August, further violations of Angolan airspace occurred and the town of Xangongo was subjected to heavy SAAF bombing. Meanwhile, two motorised columns of South African forces - one comprised of 32 tanks and 82 other vehicles - entered Angola along the same road that had been used in the 1975 invasion, connecting Lubango with northern Namibia via Ngiva. The first column clashed with FAPLA forces in the Xangongo area, 100 km inside Angola; the second occupied Catequero, approximately 50 km further on, and was also engaged by FAPLA in fierce fighting. In a telegram to the UN Secretary General, the Angolan President warned that Angola might be obliged to invoke Chapter 51 of the UN Charter to seek military assistance to avert what threatened to become "a war with unforeseeable consequences". A general mobilization of Angolan armed forces was set in motion, with all military units ordered to regroup in barracks within 48 hours.
On 3 September, the invasion was reported by the Angolan authorities to have expanded on a second front, when a South African motorised column was spotted thrusting into Kuando-Kubango province in the south-east of Angola, approximately 100 km east of Menongue and heading in the direction of Mavinga (communiques issued by the Angolan Ministry of Defence on various dates).
