The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) was an Angolan national liberation movement that participated in the struggle for power following Angola's independence in 1974. The original mission of the FNLA, officially formed under the leadership of Holden Roberto after the Union of the People of Angola merged with the Democratic Party of Angola in 1962, was to restore the home of the ethnic Bakongo people in northern Angola and southern Zaire, known as the "Kongo Kingdom." It follows that the FNLA's current political base comes mostly from this region. After a 1974 coup d'etat installed a military government in Portugal, three separate liberation movements were given control of Angola, and, shortly thereafter, a bitter ideological civil war ensued between the FNLA, allied with an FNLA splinter group known as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the dominant Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).<br /><br /><p><br /><br />Evidence suggests that despite substantial funding from countries like the United States and China, the FNLA played a minor role in Angola's post-colonial civil war. UNITA, with the backing of South African forces and American financing, gradually rose to become the only significant opposition group strong enough to challenge the Luanda-based government controlled by the MPLA. After briefly establishing a second capital in Huambo with UNITA, the influence of the FNLA quickly waned when Zaire withdrew its support of FNLA rebels in 1978 and effectively eliminated the group's base of power and safe haven across the border. The following year, Roberto was exiled to Paris, and a new but still ineffectual group, the Military Council of Angolan Resistance (COMIRA), was formed by ex-FNLA guerrillas and quickly disbanded. In 1984, 1,500 FNLA fighters and 20,000 civilian supporters surrendered, prompting Roberto to accept the MPLA's amnesty agreement, effectively shutting down the militant arm of the FNLA. <br />