Savimbi, Jonas Malheiro

▪ 2003

      Angolan nationalist guerrilla leader (b. Aug. 3, 1934, Munhango, Portuguese Angola—d. Feb. 22, 2002, near Lucuse, Angola), was the charismatic and fiercely ambitious leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Savimbi originally fought alongside the Marxist-oriented Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the U.S.-backed National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) in the war for liberation from Portugal, but he later turned against his erstwhile allies and waged war on the MPLA-led postindependence government. Savimbi, a member of the Ovimbundu tribe, was the son of a railroad stationmaster and Protestant preacher. He studied medicine in Lisbon, Port., where he met MPLA founder Agostinho Neto and joined the independence movement; some reports indicated that he studied political science in Switzerland. In 1965 Savimbi accepted funding and military training from China; the next year he founded UNITA and returned home with a small militia, which quickly gained popular support in eastern Angola. After independence was granted in 1975, civil war broke out between the liberation groups. Savimbi sought U.S. and South African aid to fight the MPLA, which was backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union. A peace agreement led to elections in 1992, but when the MPLA won the vote, Savimbi refused to accept the results. Thereafter, despite peace talks, occasional cease-fires, and dwindling support, he continued the guerrilla war. Savimbi was killed in a gun battle with government troops in rural Moxico province.

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