All Eyes on Angola

On January 8, days before the African Cup of Nations tournament was to begin in Angola, an ambush on a bus transporting the Togo national soccer team in the Cabinda region of Angola killed three delegation members.

In the aftermath of the attack, media reports focused primarily on the implications for the safety and security of athletes and fans at global sporting events. The Angolan government, which had hoped to showcase its peaceful, post-civil war development -– by hosting the most important African Soccer event -- faced some embarrassing questions about its ability to guarantee security and a few on the conflict in Cabinda. The Togo squad returned home to mourn their dead, missing the team’s first match. In response, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned Togo from participating in the next two African Cup of Nations and fined the team $50,000. (Egypt’s side won the event.)

According to CAF President Issa Hayatou, Togo was punished for “governmental interference.” The lesson, of course, is crystal clear. Don’t get ambushed in Angola! And if you do, don’t raise a fuss! And the lesson for the Angolan government? Well, that’s still playing out. Will the international community—like the Confederation of African Football—give Angola a free pass? Or will the Togo incident lead to the kind of oversight in Cabinda that has been lacking?

Some background first. The attack against the Togo team was claimed by the Cabinda separatist group FLEC (Frente de Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda, or The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda). FLEC has fought the governmental MPLA forces (now the Angolan Government) for control of the oil-rich region of Cabinda for nearly three decades, during which time grave human rights violations have occurred.

The war in Cabinda supposedly came to an end in August 2006 after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Angolan government and representatives in Cabinda. But leading factions of the Cabinda separatists were excluded from the talks leading to the MOU and fail to recognize the agreement, in part because no important concessions were made by the Government. The Angolan MPLA defeated its main opposition, UNITA, in 2002, and has been since trying to demonstrate that the entire country has achieved lasting peace and stability. Still, Angolans know that whatever authorities may claim, the rebels are alive and ready to fight in Cabinda. And so is the government; the question, though, is how. Shortly after the incident, Antonio Bento Bembe, the former rebel and now governmental minister, told Reuters the government “will do all we can to finish them off.”

The international community — and more importantly, ordinary citizens — are right to demand security from Angolan authorities in Cabinda and throughout the country. Unfortunately, experience shows that when the government has responded to perceived insecurity in Cabinda as elsewhere, it often has done so with brutal, disproportionate force, targeting not only combatants but also innocent civilians. Last year, Human Rights Watch reported that Angolan authorities regularly swept up many people suspected of belonging to FLEC and subjected them to brutal torture.

The promise “to finish them off” suggests the possibility of broad, lawless actions likely to compromise the security of many in the Cabinda region. At the same time, FLEC military leader, Rodrigues Mingas, in exile in France, has promised more attacks. Whatever the demands of the FLEC may be, foreign soccer players do not constitute a legitimate military target and attacking them is unjustified under just about any construction of the laws of war.

Access to Cabinda is quite difficult but the attacks may bring the international community and media to scrutinize Cabinda and Angola. In doing so, it must address not only the safety of international football squads and fans. It should turn its focus, as well, to the conduct of military and police actions in the region with particular concern for the well being and rights of ordinary Angolans. Of course, so too should the Angolan authorities and FLEC forces. But without international and global media attention, that is not likely to happen. So let’s keep our focus on what really matters in Angola.

Nadejda Rodrigues Marques, who has researched rights issues in Angola for the past seven years, co-wrote this post.

Photo credit: Nadejda Marques