Isaías Samakuva
| Isaías Henrique Ngola Samakuva | |
|---|---|
 |
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| President of UNITA | |
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Assumed office 20 June 2003 |
|
| Preceded by | António Dembo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 July 1946 Kunje, Angola |
| Political party | UNITA |
| Children | 5 |
Isaías Henrique Ngola Samakuva (born July 8, 1946) is an Angolan politician who has been the President of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) since June 2003.
After UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi and his immediate successor António Dembo died from injuries sustained in a February 2002 firefight with Angolan government troops, Samakuva was elected as President of UNITA, which had transformed itself into a peaceful opposition party, in 2003.
Son of Henrique Ngola Samakuva and Rosália Ani Samakuva, Samakuva was born in Silva Porto-Gare (present Kunji), Bié Province.
In 1970, he was a professor at the Evangelical Mission House and then took a course in theology at the Seminary of Dondi, where he became an evangelical pastor. He formally joined UNITA in 1974 and, a year later, he was admitted as an official of the Ministry of Labour in the Transitional Government of Angola.
In 1976, due to political insecurity, he retired to the bush, settling in one of the bases of UNITA in the Military Region 25, moving then to Region 45, where he served as chief of staff of the command. Two years later, Samakuva was transferred to Region 11 to head the office of the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, thence to the region Kubango, which began coordinating the logistics of UNITA in the so-called on South front.
In 1979 he was a delegate to the 12th Annual Conference of UNITA and elected member of the Central Committee, having been transferred to South Africa as representative of the movement led by Jonas Savimbi in that country.
In 1984, he was appointed vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of UNITA, and in 1986, at the party's sixth congress, he was elected to the permanent secretariat and to the direction of the cabinet of Jonas Savimbi. He was an official UNITA ambassador in Europe from 1989 to 1994 and again from 1998 to 2002. Between 1989 and 1993, he was the representative of UNITA in the United Kingdom; later he was delegated to Europe.
After the failed peace agreement signed in Lisbon (1991) and the (1994), Samakuva led a party delegation to the Joint Commission established to monitor the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol.
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