People's Liberation Army of Namibia

People's Liberation Army of Namibia
Leaders
PLAN Commander
SWAPO Secretary of Defence
Chairman of the SWAPO Military Council
Dates of operation1962 – 1990[note 1]
Headquarters
Active regionsSouth West Africa (Namibia), Angola, Zambia, Tanzania
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
Size32,000 (1989)[6]
Allies Cuba
 Soviet Union
 East Germany
 China
 Algeria
 North Korea
MPLA
ANC
Opponents South Africa
 South West Africa
UNITA
 Rhodesia
Battles and warsSee full list

The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) was the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). It fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) during the South African Border War.[12] Throughout its history, PLAN had both irregular insurgent and semi-conventional units, as well as an extensive recruitment network in rural South West Africa (Namibia).[13][14] During the war most of its domestic activities consisted of mine warfare and acts of sabotage.[15][16] PLAN initially lacked any standing units, and the bulk of operations were carried out by political exiles who spent cyclical periods residing in refugee camps in neighbouring states before launching raids inside South West Africa itself.[6] By the end of the war, PLAN had 32,000 militants under arms,[6] including three battalions of semi-conventional troops equipped with heavy weapons.[17]

PLAN launched its largest and final offensive between late April and early March 1989.[18] Thereafter, it ceased operations due to the ongoing peace process in South West Africa and withdrew to above the 16th parallel south.[6] The bulk of PLAN's forces were disarmed and demobilized on its Angolan camps in late 1989 by the United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG) and repatriated to South West Africa.[6] A small number remained in reserve until after Namibian independence, when they were also repatriated.[6] The last PLAN troops and equipment were returned to Namibia in mid-1990 for integration with the new Namibian Defence Force (NDF).[7]

  1. ^ Kangumu, Bennett (2011). Contesting Caprivi: A History of Colonial Isolation and Regional Nationalism in Namibia. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Center and Southern Africa Library. pp. 143–153. ISBN 978-3905758221.
  2. ^ Ekandjo, Peter (2014). The Volunteers Army, p. 38., Windhoek. ISBN 978-99945-78-18-4.
  3. ^ Peter Eneas Nanyemba affectionately known as "Ndlimani Yomukunda Gwamupolo" Archived 2015-07-31 at the Wayback Machine New Era Newspaper, 17 October 2014
  4. ^ Dierks
  5. ^ a b c Shiremo, Shampapi (6 May 2011). "Peter Mweshihange: The cornerstone of Namibia's liberation struggle. (1930-1998)". New Era. Archived from the original on 2012-03-31.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h McMullin, Jaremey (2013). Ex-Combatants and the Post-Conflict State: Challenges of Reintegration. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 81–88. ISBN 978-1-349-33179-6.
  7. ^ a b Stiff, Peter (2001). Warfare by Other Means: South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Johannesburg: Galago Publishing Pty Ltd. p. 379. ISBN 978-1-919854-01-4.
  8. ^ a b Torreguitar, Elena (2009). National Liberation Movements in Office: Forging Democracy with African Adjectives in Namibia. Frankfurt: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften. pp. 106–168. ISBN 978-3631579954.
  9. ^ Nujoma, Samuel (2001). Where others wavered. London: Panaf Books. pp. 157–160, 228–242. ISBN 978-0901787583.
  10. ^ Williams, Christian (October 2015). National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO's Exile Camps. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 73–89. ISBN 978-1107099340.
  11. ^ Dreyer, Ronald (1994). Namibia and Southern Africa: Regional Dynamics of Decolonization, 1945-90. London: Kegan Paul International. pp. 73–87, 100–116. ISBN 978-0710304711.
  12. ^ Peoples Liberation Army of Namibia, or PLAN (army of SWAPO) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  13. ^ Peter, Abbott; Helmoed-Romer Heitman; Paul Hannon (1991). Modern African Wars (3): South-West Africa. Osprey Publishing. pp. 5–13. ISBN 978-1-85532-122-9.[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ Dale, Richard (2014). The Namibian War of Independence, 1966-1989: Diplomatic, Economic and Military Campaigns. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers. pp. 74–77, 93–95. ISBN 978-0786496594.
  15. ^ Hooper, Jim (2013) [1988]. Koevoet! Experiencing South Africa's Deadly Bush War. Solihull: Helion and Company. pp. 86–93. ISBN 978-1868121670.
  16. ^ Camp, Steve; Helmoed-Römer, Heitman (November 2014). Surviving the Ride: A pictorial history of South African Manufactured Mine-Protected vehicles. Pinetown: 30 Degrees South. pp. 19–22. ISBN 978-1928211-17-4.
  17. ^ Vanneman, Peter (1990). Soviet Strategy in Southern Africa: Gorbachev's Pragmatic Approach. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. pp. 41–57. ISBN 978-0817989026.
  18. ^ Stiff, Peter (1989). Nine Days of War. Alberton: Lemur Books (Pty) Ltd. pp. 20, 89, 260. ISBN 978-0620142601.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).