"The FLEC-FAC political-military leadership appeals to the member states of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to urgently organize a regional summit in Kampala on the issue of self-determination in Cabinda, ahead of Angola's general elections, the 24th of August", reads a statement signed by the secretary general of FLEC, Jacinto António Télica.
In the note, it is argued that "this regional summit will aim to discuss the modalities of organizing a referendum of self-determination in the territory of Cabinda, and to put an end to the Angolan military occupation".
"FLEC-FAC urges President Yoweri Museveni [of Uganda], President Denis Sassou-Nguesso [Republic of Congo] and President Paul Kagamé [of Rwanda] to act quickly on the issue of the self-determination referendum in Cabinda," he adds. The text recalls that in 1976 the independence of Cabinda was unilaterally proclaimed in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and that in 1964 the Organization of African Unity, predecessor of the African Union, classified Cabinda as the 39th African state.
"Cabinda is the last colony in Africa, which is a disgrace to our Africa", says FLEC.
For several years, FLEC has been fighting for the independence of the territory, from which a large part of Angolan oil comes, claiming that the enclave was a Portuguese protectorate, as established in the Treaty of Simulambuco, signed in 1885, and not an integral part of the angolan territory.
However, the Government refuses to recognize a situation of instability in that province, always stressing the unity of the territory.
