"Faced with the intransigence of the Angolan Government, with its warmongering stance in Cabinda, the Armed Forces of Cabinda (FAC) impose a thirty-day ultimatum on the Government of João Lourenço [President of the Republic], to withdraw all of its troops from Cabinda", reads a statement from FLEC-FAC.
"Beyond this period of thirty days, the FAC will intensify its large-scale military actions against the Angolan invaders throughout the territory of Cabinda, to assert our rights", reads the statement, which reiterates that "the self-determination through independence is the only solution for Cabinda".
In this "war communiqué", the General Staff of the Cabindian Armed Forces (FAC) also states that its military, "in operation in the Tando-Zinze region, successfully carried out two actions against the positions of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA ), causing severe casualties to the occupant".
"25 Angolan soldiers and six senior officers died in this operation, a colonel, a military police major, three captains and a lieutenant", he reveals.
The Cabindian Armed Forces (FAC) will, according to the statement, have recovered "weapons left by Angolan FAA soldiers".
The Government normally refuses to recognize the existence of dead soldiers resulting from guerrilla actions by independence activists, or any situation of instability in that northern province of Angola, always emphasizing the unity of the territory.
FLEC, through its "armed wing", the FAC, has been fighting for the independence of the territory, from where much of Angola's oil comes, for several years, claiming that the enclave was a Portuguese protectorate - as established in the Treaty of Simulambuco, signed in 1885 – and not an integral part of Angolan territory.
Cabinda is bordered to the north by the Republic of Congo, to the east and south by the Democratic Republic of Congo and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, being geographically disconnected from Angolan territory.
