Cabinda

How it was cut off

Portugal occupied the coast north of the Congo River in 1783, was forced out by a French expedition 11 months later, and laid claim to Cabinda again in 1815.^[4] On 1 February 1885 Angola’s governor-general endorsed the Simulambuco treaty, supposedly at the request of local leaders; one historian calls it in reality a subtle occupation, signed in the presence of Portuguese marines.^[5]

That month, during the Berlin Conference, Portugal and King Leopold’s International Association of the Congo signed a treaty on 14 February. The Association recognised Portugal’s claim to Cabinda, and Portugal guaranteed the Association a narrow corridor of land to the coast.^[4] That corridor, now part of DR Congo, is what separates Cabinda from the rest of Angola. France recognised Portugal’s claim too, and a Franco-Portuguese convention of 12 May 1886 fixed Cabinda’s northern border.^[4]

Portugal’s Angola administration was later extended north of the Congo to include the district of Cabinda, and in 1951 Angola became an overseas province, legally part of Portugal itself.^[6]

Oil and separatism

The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) was founded in 1963 by Cabindans living in the two Congos. It fought first for independence from Portugal, and then from Angola when Angola became independent in 1975.^[5][3] The Simulambuco treaty is the cornerstone of the separatists’ case, and they have tried to persuade Portugal to take back the supervisory role they say it gives Portugal. Portugal, however, is bound by the Alvor Accords of January 1975 on Angola’s independence.^[5]

Crude oil, most of it offshore, became Cabinda’s main export.^[1] By 2009 the province produced half of Angola’s oil.^[3] In the early 1990s the government promised Cabinda 10 percent of the annual oil revenue, but local groups, including some who don’t want independence, complained of poor infrastructure and a polluted sea.^[5]

War and a partial peace

After Angola’s civil war ended in 2002, the army sent about 30,000 troops into Cabinda and destroyed FLEC’s main bases, and Human Rights Watch documented killings, torture and arbitrary detention of civilians.^[3] In 2006 the government signed a peace memorandum with the Cabinda Forum for Dialogue, which offered an amnesty and government posts to former fighters. The most active faction, FLEC-FAC, was left out, and attacks continued.^[3][1]

On 8 January 2010 gunmen fired on the bus of Togo’s national football team as it crossed Cabinda on its way to the Africa Cup of Nations, which Angola was hosting. Two Togolese officials and an Angolan driver were killed, and FLEC claimed the attack.^[2] Fighting picked up again from 2016, when FLEC increased its attacks on Angolan forces.^[1]