Koevoet

Koevoet (pronounced kufut : ˈkuːfut , translated from Afrikaans "crowbar", abbreviated Operation K , also SWAPOL-COIN (from South West Africa Police Counter-Insurgency Unit )) is a special counter-insurgency paramilitary unit of the South African police from the local population, used to combat partisans of the national liberation movement SWAPO in Namibia .

The Kuvut units consisted of 850 troops, most of whom belonged to the Ovambo Negro ethnic group , headed by 300 white officers and noncommissioned officers. Officers were recruited from the South African police and South-West African police and received additional training in parts of the South African special forces. Every 40 people formed a platoon (patrol) and were equipped with Casspir mini-protected armored personnel carriers , each of which was armed with a 20-mm gun. The service was as follows: a week of patrols in the bush, followed by a week of rest at the base in the camp of Oshakati . The fight was conducted almost exclusively with the SWAPO guerrilla units, but was accompanied by reprisals against the civilian population, torture and murder of detainees, mass rape and similar crimes.

Kufoot was organized in 1978 as the idea of ​​Hans Dreyer, then a colonel, and then a major general in the South African army. He was guided by the “ flushas ” that Portugal used in Angola against the partisans, and the Selous Scouts from Rhodesia , as well as by the native trackers, who along with the white officers served in the colonial units. During its existence, Kuvut lost 153 people killed and in turn destroyed at least 3,681 partisans of SWAPO.

The unit was disbanded in September – October 1989 , after the proclamation of independence of Namibia ^[1] .