Dimo Hamaambo

Lieutenant General Mweukefina Kulaumone Jerobeam Dimo Hamaambo (27 October, 1932 – 8 September, 2002) was a Namibian military commander in both the Namibian War of Independence as a SWAPO member and in independent Namibia as the Chief of Defence in the Namibia Defence Force. He became the second commander of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) in 1967 after the death of Tobias Hainyeko and held the position until independence was gained in 1990.

Pre-military career

Hamaambo was one of the thirteen children of his mother Josephina Melila Shipo and father Jona Hamaambo in Eengava, Ovamboland (now known as Ohangwena Region). After receiving some education in area schools, Hamaambo went to work outside of Ovamboland as a contract labourer on a White owned farm as well as a domestic worker, at a cannery in Walvis Bay and eventually in the gold mines of Johannesburg, South Africa. Hamaambo eventually returned to Namibia and joined the Ovamboland People's Organization (OPO), a predecessor of the SWAPO, at Walvis Bay in 1959. In 1960-61, Hamaambo attempted to leave the country via a boat leaving Lobito, Angola for the United Kingdom but was caught and returned to Namibia.

Exile

Hamaambo finally went into exile in 1962 through Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and into Tanganyika (now Tanzania). From Tanzania, Hamaambo went for military training in newly independent Algeria and later the Soviet Union before becoming Second Deputy Army Commander of what was to become the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) in 1966, the year which began the Namibian War of Independence. Quickly rising through the ranks, Hamaambo become First Deputy in 1967 and Army Commander in 1968.

In 1974 the soldiers led by Hamaambo started using Cassinga, an abandoned Angolan iron ore mine, as a stopover point for a few weeks They soon thereafter occupied the place. which quickly became not only a military camp but also a refugee camp. Cassinga was attacked by air on 4 May 1978 by the South African Defence Force in the Battle of Cassinga. Hamaambo barely escaped.

He remained Army Commander of PLAN forces until PLAN's absorption into the new Namibia Defence Force in 1989. After PLAN's absorption, Hamaambo returned to Namibia prior to independence.

Namibian Defence Force

Upon independence in March 1990, the PLAN veteran was named first Chief of Defence Forces, which lasted until his retirement in 2000 at the age 68. Hamaambo died in September 2002 and was the first person buried as a hero at Heroes' Acre, a war memorial south of Windhoek.