Published in English and exclusively on a eBook format, this is a contribution for the United Nations’ historical records as well as Angola’s history, written in the (verb) first person of the singular, this eBook portrays a unique UN mission, which was a major success in the operational arena, but with disastrous results in the Hosts Nation leading it to the renewal of a deadly civil war.
In 165 pages, with 50.000 words and 34 images, the author revelas his mission diary during the United Nations’ operation “Angolan Frist Free Elections” (1992. An operation that was considered, at the time, the largest air operation the UN had ever done, in order to deploy and retract all the materiel and staff, needed to conduct a proper elections’ process. Angola had just come out of a deadly civil war, and the country had number of registered voters inferior to a large European city, scattered all over a territory larger than Western Europe. The problem was not so much the lack of roads, but rather the fact that Angola hadn’t yet completely solidified its peace process and that its landscape was considered the most densely landmine territory in the world.
The book “Angola 92 – A Captain’s diary” is a nonfictional book, written and illustrated with a touch of humor. It tells in 18 stories of real adventures in the skies and grounds of Moxico – Angola – making possible a successful mission. These stories refer to the minefields; the precarious conditions of airworthiness and fuel management; the lack of physical security of the UN elements and their supporting material; the problem of refugees and displaced persons from war; to demobilized combatants; the social realities with which the population of Luena struggled with the consequences of electoral results; and the resurgence of the Angolan Civil War; and the (1992) repatriation of several thousand Portuguese citizens out of Angola, in yet another airbridge for a Non Combatant Evacuation.
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