AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS WHICH RECEIVED DIPLOMATIC OR …



|AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS WHICH RECEIVED DIPLOMATIC OR MILITARY SUPPORT FROM THE SOVIET UNION |

|Angola |under Agostinho Neto and Eduardo dos Santos |

|Mozambique |under Samora Machel |

|Guinea Bissau |under Amilcar Cabral |

|Congo (Conakry) |became a Marxist Leninist state in 1970, under Major Ngouabi. |

|Egypt |under Nasser in 1954-69 |

|Somalia |under Siad Barre. Allied in 1969, but soon changed sides to |

| |become violently anti-Soviet. During the Cold War period, it was |

| |the only government to do so under the same leader in Africa |

|Ethiopia |under Mengistu Haile Mariam, following the revolution in 1974 |

|Uganda |briefly under Milton Obote in 1969 |

|Benin |declared a Marxist Leninist state in 1974, under Mathieu Kerekou.|

EGYPT

Egypt, which was a British protectorate from World War I to 1937, opposed the U.N. partition of Palestine in 1948 and played a prominent role in the subsequent wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors. A coup in 1952 ousted King Farouk. In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egypt's first native leader in more than 2,000 years.

In the 1950s, both east and west offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The west canceled its offer, however, after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government of Czechoslovakia. Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal. A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt. France and Britain joined the invasion. For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue. Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The Suez Crisis was a political victory for the Soviets. When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the arab world.

SOMALIA

The former British colony became independent in 1960. A coup in 1969 by Maj. Gen. Muhammad Siyad Barre transformed Somalia into a socialist state -- which received Soviet aid and weaponry. In 1977, the Somalis seized large parts of the Ogaden desert -- setting off a war with neighboring Ethiopia, which also claimed the region. The Barre regime switched its alliance from the Soviets to the United States and began receiving American aid. The Soviets, meanwhile, gave their complete support to the new socialist government in Ethiopia. Soviet arms and about 15,000 troops were sent to help Ethiopia defeat Somalia.

ETHIOPIA

In 1974 Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie was ousted by several army officers -- who established a socialist state. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam emerged as head of state in 1977. Ethiopia received support from the Soviet Union and Cuba in its successful 1977 war with Somalia -- a former Soviet client state -- over the Ogaden region.

In 1991, the collapse of the Soviet bloc also helped bring an end to the Mengistu government. In 1993, with the new government's agreement, the rebellious region of Eritrea was declared independent of Ethiopia -- although Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a violent border war in early 1999.

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Previously called French Congo or Middle Congo, it became independent from France in 1960. Its first president, Fulbert Youlou, was overthrown in 1963 and replaced by a Marxist regime. That regime was, in turn, ousted in 1968 by the military -- which continued many of the previous government's socialist policies.

In 1979, Col. Denis Sassou-Nguesso became president and remained in that position until 1992 -- when Pascal Lissouba was elected in the country's first democratic balloting. In 1997, Sassou-Nguesso fought his way back to power with the help of Angolan troops. But supporters of Lissouba have since counterattacked.

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