Battle of Cuito Cuanavale 1987
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
About the battle
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought intermittently between 14 August 1987 and 23 March 1988, south and east of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, by the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and Cuba against South Africa and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. The battle was the largest engagement of the Angolan conflict and the biggest conventional battle on the African continent since World War II. UNITA and its South African allies defeated a major FAPLA offensive towards Mavinga, preserving UNITA's control of southern Angola. A subsequent counteroffensive was launched around the Tumpo River east of Cuito Cuanavale, and succeeded in ending FAPLA advances but failed to eliminate all remaining FAPLA positions.
After several failed attempts to take control of Southern Angola in 1986, eight FAPLA brigades mustered for a final offensive—Operation Saluting October—in August 1987 with extensive auxiliary support from the Soviet Union. The FAPLA offensive took the form of a two-pronged, multi-divisional movement southwards towards Mavinga, a major UNITA stronghold and logistics centre.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (revision 1370785582), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Ongulumbashe 1966 · 331 km
- Battle of Cassinga 1978 · 331 km
Browse more: battles in Angola · Africa · Post-1945 battles