António da Costa Fernandes explained

António Fwaminy da Costa Fernandes
Office1:Ambassador of Angola to Egypt[1]
Term Start1:1 June 2011
Term End1:2019
Office2:Ambassador of Angola to India
Term Start2:2005
Term End2:2011
Office3:Ambassador of Angola to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland
Term Start3:1994
Term End3:2005
Party:UNITA (until 1992)
Birth Date:26 April 1942
Birth Place:Cabinda, Angola
Education:University of Fribourg
Awards:Order of the Hero of the National Independence

António Fwaminy da Costa Fernandes aka Tony da Costa Fernandes (Cabinda, 26 April 1942) is an Angolan politician. He served as UNITA's representative to the United Kingdom.[2] Along with Jonas Savimbi, he was co-founder of UNITA. He has been Angola's ambassador to Egypt, the United Kingdom, and India, and non-resident ambassador to Thailand.[3]

UNITA

Costa Fernandes studied with Savimbi, the future leader of UNITA, in Switzerland. In November 1963 they went to Portugal, planning an uprising against Portuguese colonial authorities in Angola.

Later, when UNITA allied with the People's Republic of China, Costa Fernandes recruited the first refugees in Zambia to go to China for military training. He went along with fourteen other men.[2]

He served as the Foreign Minister of UNITA.

In the 1990s Fernandes and UNITA Interior Minister General Miguel N'Zau Puna allegedly uncovered the fact that UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi ordered the assassinations of both Wilson dos Santos, UNITA's representative to Portugal, and Tito Chingunji, one of Costa Fernandes' predecessors. Dos Santos and Chingunji's deaths and the defections of Fernandes and Puna weakened the U.S.-UNITA relationship and seriously harmed Savimbi's international reputation.[4] Costa Fernandes left UNITA in 1992.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: President sacks and appoints ambassadors. 2023-07-16. FAAPA. 2023-11-26.
  2. Book: Brittain, Victoria. 1998. Death of Dignity: Angola's Civil War. 10.
  3. Web site: Ambassador. September 2012. Embassy of the Republic of Angola. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20190201163318/http://www.angolaeg.net/index.php/2015-06-11-11-01-28/ambassador. 2019-02-01.
  4. Book: Meredith, Martin. 2005. The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair: A History of 50 Years of Independence. registration. 604.
  5. British-Angola Forum Conference Report. November 2002. Chatham House. 2023-11-26. 14.