The Soviet-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.) delivered some devastating military blows to its opponents last week. With Cuban "freedom fighters" doing more and more of the fighting, the Marxist-oriented regime of Agostinho Neto in Luanda seemed on the verge of eliminating one of its rival factions and at least neutralizing the other.
In the north, Holden Roberto's National Front for the Liberation of Angola seemed virtually finished. The scattered F.N.L.A. forces were withdrawing slowly through dense jungle toward the Zaïre border, blowing up bridges and destroying guns and ammunition that they could not carry with them. At week's end Cuban-led M.P.L.A. troops had pushed the F.N.L.A. to within 50 miles of the Zaïre border. It was apparently only a matter of time before Roberto's army lost control of Santo António do Zaïre, São Salvador and Maquela do Zombo—the last three major towns still in F.N.L.A. hands.
From his sanctuary in Zaïre's capital of Kinshasa, F.N.L.A. Leader Roberto made occasional forays into his shrinking beachhead in Angola. His top lieutenants, however, were already resigned to the prospect of reverting to guerrilla warfare—the minings, ambushes and hit-and-run raids that they used to practice (without much success) against the Portuguese.
Suicidal Move. For its part, the M.P.L.A. pledged to stop at the Zaïre border, hoping to deter Zaïre's President Mobutu Sese Seko—a strong supporter of the F.N.L.A.—from making a retaliatory move against the oil-rich northern enclave of Cabinda. In any case, the M.P.L.A. has stationed 2,000 of its best troops in Cabinda, helped by some Cubans and armed with Soviet T-54 tanks. Thus it is unlikely that Mobutu could overrun Cabinda even if he tried.
Also in Kinshasa last week was Jonas Savimbi, leader of the third warring faction, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Savimbi spoke grandly of airlifting some 5,000 UNITA troops from the south to reinforce the crumbling F.N.L.A.—an obviously suicidal move, if he really means what he said. Savimbi's forces were giving ground to intensified M.P.L.A. attacks, which were also led by Cubans. At the same time, the infamous and disorderly F.N.L.A. "Chipenda column," a semiautonomous force of some 1,200 that is supposedly allied to UNITA, was doing more in the way of fighting with UNITA troops, robbing banks and terrorizing civilians than holding back the M.P.L.A. offensive.
Major Setback. In fact, the M.P.L.A. captured the town of Cela, just 100 miles north of the UNITA capital of Huambo. That is a major setback for UNITA and its South African allies, who used the city as their principal forward supply base. Further to the east, UNITA commanders near Luso claimed to have repulsed an attack by 1,000 M.P.L.A. troops, spearheaded by 500 Cubans and backed by Soviet advisers. At both Cela and Luso, South African artillery supporting UNITA troops played a major role in blocking M.P.L.A. advances.