"FLEC-FAC calls for the accession of Cabinda, within the Arab League, to the status of observer member of the organization and calls on the 22 member countries of the Arab League, as well as King Salman ben Abdelaziz Al Saoud of Saudi Arabia and King Mohammed VI of Morocco, to stop recognizing Angola's sovereignty over Cabinda and show solidarity to politically support the Cabindas, and then internationalize Cabinda's struggle," says a statement signed by the secretary general, Jacinto António Télica.
The independence movement alleges that the Cabinda problem "is not an internal problem of Angola, but is a problem of aggression," considering that "Angola is an occupying power.
FLEC-FAC also denounced the "hypocrisy and unacceptable silence of the European Union in the face of the repressive, authoritarian and tyrannical policy of João Lourenço" in that territory in northern Angola and accused "some member states of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries) of being accomplices in Luanda, by politically isolating the Cabindan issue at the international level.
For this reason, he continues, "he needs the diplomatic support of the Arab League to combat the political isolation of Cabinda at the United Nations level" and "will use all legitimate means to achieve its objectives" without excluding armed struggle.
Cabinda province, where most of the country's oil reserves are concentrated, is not contiguous with the rest of the territory and for years local leaders have advocated independence, claiming a colonial history autonomous from Luanda.
FLEC, through its "armed wing", the FAC, fights for the independence of the province, 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 bounded 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.
