Non-aggression pact of 1979
The Southern Africa Non-aggression Pact required signatory states to ensure that no individual or organization attacked a signatory state from signatory soil. Presidents Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia signed the agreement on October 14, 1979. The signatories also signed a treaty on transportation and communication cooperation the same day. The non-aggression pact largely held together until Angola, along with most of Southern Africa, invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1996 in the First Congo War.
The treaty came in direct response to Cuba's invasions of Zaire from Angola in 1977 and 1978. Mobutu and Kaunda's support for National Liberation Front of Angola and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola rebels in the Angolan Civil War and dos Santos' support for the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo in Zaire led to repeated clashes in the 1970s.
Most notable is South Africa's absence in signing the treaty, considering the apartheid government's support for UNITA in Angola exceeded all other nations and South Africa's support for Renamo in Mozambique.
