José Eduardo dos Santos

Bongo is also being marginalised by the growing assertiveness of President José Eduardo dos Santos' government in Angola whose military might and economic power have been critical in propping up Laurent Kabila's beleaguered Kinshasa regime...

After the return to hostilities between President José Eduardo dos Santos' government and Jonas Savimbi's rebels it is fairly clear that the government wants the UN to close down its monitoring mission in the country...

Undeterred by this fiasco President José Eduardo dos Santos announced his government was severing all dialogue with Savimbi and would negotiate only with UNITA Renovada...

In the competitive bidding for equipment for Girassol both companies won a share with a helping hand from President Jacques Chirac who visited in July for talks with President José Eduardo dos Santos...

South Africa's and Botswana's military intervention in the mountain kingdom follows a public row among SADC members over the decision by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos to send troops and air power to prop up Congo-Kinshasa's President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...

By 26 August Kabila could count on varying degrees of support from: • Zimbabwe: President Robert Mugabe was the strongest supporter of military backing for Kinshasa and was equally keen to assert his regional leadership credentials at a time of acute domestic unpopularity; Zimbabwe was a major arms supplier to Kabila before and after he gained power and has growing business interests in Congo; • Angola: fearful that Congo's instability will help Jonas Savimbi's União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola forces it was persuaded by Mugabe to help shore up Kabila as a means of securing the Congo-Angola border and cutting UNITA supply lines; on the back of Angola's involvement we hear that South Africa's Executive Outcomes are also working with Kabila with one report suggesting they might organise a cross-border attack into rebel-held territory in Eastern Congo from Central African Republic; • Namibia: helped persuade Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos to join the pro-Kabila alliance; is giving logistical support but few if any troops; • Kenya: Daniel arap Moi's government has pledged diplomatic support for Kabila and hasn't ruled out military help; Moi instinctively distrusts any cause backed by Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda's General Paul Kagame; • Mozambique: facilitated disguised transhipments of Chinese arms for Congo through Beira corridor to Zimbabwe and on to Lubumbashi; • Tanzania: unease among some ministers about growing Tutsi influence military and diplomatic in the region but is also keen to maintain congenial relations with neighbouring Burundi and Rwanda; it hurriedly withdrew on 24 August some 600 troops and 200 policemen it had sent to Congo for training; • Congo-Brazzaville: has pledged total commitment to Luanda (whose troops help keep President Denis Sassou Nguesso in power) and by extension to Luanda's allies...

Overseas President José Eduardo dos Santos has been softening up key allies...

Last month President José Eduardo dos Santos told his party's Central Committee that MONUA would withdraw completely by the end of 1998...

Angola's assets in oil gas and minerals offer spectacular opportunities but the complexities of dealing with President José Eduardo dos Santos' office have upset some oil-backed deals between state oil producer Sonangol the presidency and some pukka European banks...

The move reflected growing impatience from the UN Western and African states with UNITA's failure to comply with almost any of the provisions of the nine-point plan agreed with the UN and President José Eduardo dos Santos' ruling Movimento Popular para a Libertação de Angola in January...