The Battle of Quifangondo was fought on 10 November 1975, near the strategic settlement of Quifangondo, Luanda Province, between the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), armed wing of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Liberation Army of Angola (ELNA), armed wing of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The engagement marked the first major deployment of rocket artillery in the Angolan Civil War, as well as the last serious attempt by ELNA forces to seize Luanda, the Angolan capital. It occurred on the last day of Portuguese colonial rule in the country, which formally received independence only hours later.
FNLA leader Holden Roberto
Luanda in the early 1970s, just prior to the civil war
Mobutu Sese Seko, Roberto's personal ally in Zaire, pictured in 1975
ELNA militants at a training camp in Zaire
The Angolan Civil War was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements, the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Image: Building with Bullet holes in Huambo, Angola
Image: Cuban PT 76 Angola
Portuguese Army soldiers operating in the Angolan jungle in the early 1960s
Senator Dick Clark