About: Matola Raid

The Matola Raid or Matola Massacre was an attack by apartheid-era South African state security forces and unlawful combatants against residences inhabited by African National Congress (ANC) members in Matola, Mozambique on 30 January 1981. The attack left thirteen South Africans, who had previously joined the structures of the ANC or its armed wing MK in exile, dead. Three of the attackers and one uninvolved bystander were also killed. Taking place during the height of apartheid, the operation aligned with the National Party government's destabilisation campaign against independent, majority-ruled neighbouring Southern African countries which harboured the ANC and other liberation organisations. Since the attackers crossed international borders and violated sovereign Mozambican territory,