Alvor Agreement
Type | Grant of independence |
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Drafted | 25 April 1974 – 14 January 1975 |
Signed | 15 January 1975 |
Location | Alvor, Portugal |
Effective | 11 November 1975 |
Parties |
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Language | Portuguese |
History of Angola | ||||||||
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Post-war Angola’s | ||||||||
See also | ||||||||
Years in Angola | ||||||||
The Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975 in Alvor, Portugal, granted Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November and formally ended the 13-year-long Angolan War of Independence.
The agreement was signed by the Portuguese government, the
Negotiations
Leftist military officers overthrew the Caetano government in Portugal in the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974. The MPLA, FNLA and UNITA all negotiated peace agreements with the transitional Portuguese government and began to fight one another for control of the Angolan capital, Luanda, and for the rest the country. Holden Roberto, Agostinho Neto, and Jonas Savimbi met in Bukavu, Zaire, in July and agreed to negotiate with the Portuguese as one political entity. They met again in Mombasa, Kenya, on 5 January 1975, agreed to stop fighting one another, and outlined a joint negotiating position on a new constitution. They met for a third time in Alvor, Portugal from January 10–15 and signed what became known as the Alvor Agreement.[1]
Terms
The parties agreed to hold elections for the
The Portuguese government's main goal in negotiations was to prevent the mass emigration of white Angolans. Paradoxically, the agreement allowed only the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA to nominate candidates to the first assembly elections, deliberately disenfranchising
The agreement called for the integration of the militant wings of the Angolan parties into a new military, the Angolan Defense Forces. The ADF would have 48,000 active personnel, made up of 24,000 local Black soldiers of the Portuguese Army and 8,000 MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA fighters respectively. Each party was to maintain separate barracks and outposts. Every military decision required the unanimous consent of each party's headquarters and the joint military command. The Portuguese forces lacked equipment and commitment to the cause, while Angolan nationalists were antagonistic of each other and lacked training.[1][3]
The treaty, to which FLEC never agreed, described
Implementation
The agreement did not establish a mechanism to verify the number of fighters from each force. All three parties soon had forces greater in number than the Portuguese did, which endangered the colonial power's ability to keep the peace. Factional fighting resumed and reached new heights as foreign supplies of arms increased. In February, the Cuban government warned the
Many analysts have criticised the transitional government in Portugal for the violence that followed the Alvor Agreement in terms of a lack of concern for internal Angolan security and favoritism towards the MPLA. High Commissioner Coutinho, one of the seven leaders of the
In July, the MPLA violently forced the FNLA out of Luanda, and the UNITA voluntarily withdrew to its stronghold in the south. There, MPLA forces engaged the UNITA, which declared war. By August, the MPLA had control of 11 of the 15 provincial capitals, including
See also
- Bicesse Accords
- Lusaka Accord
- Lusaka Protocol
- Movimento das Forças ArmadasArmed Forces Movement
- Nakuru Agreement
- Portuguese Colonial War
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0815775935.
- ^ ISBN 9780813333359.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ ISBN 978-0761828129.)
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- ^ ISBN 978-0521263085.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 978-1912302796.
- ISBN 9780717202072.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ ISBN 978-1929223619.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ 1975, Angola: Mercenaries, Murder and Corruption Archived 9 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
- ISBN 978-0745310299.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link