“Forty-six years ago, the Cassinga massacre took place, a horror that we will never forget,” the head of Cuban diplomacy wrote on the X profile.

“We remember the Cuban internationalists who heroically confronted the South African racists to save the lives of Namibian brothers.”

Rodríguez described the attitude of Cuban internationalists who fought against the act of extermination perpetrated by South Africa’s aviation as “a historic contribution to relations between Cuba and Africa.”

On May 4, 1978, a South African airborne unit bombed a camp of Namibian emigrants in Cassinga, a commune in the municipality of Jamba, in Huíla province, in Angola’s interior.

As a result of the offensive carried out at dawn, 650 people were killed and more than 350 were injured, mostly women and children.

Cuban forces stationed 15 kilometers south of the town headed to the camp to fight the South African forces.

jg/rgh/raj