Family of Angolan rebel Savimbi sue over video character

The family of slain Angolan rebel chief Jonas Savimbi are suing the makers of the popular video game “Call of Duty” for representing his character as a “barbarian”, their lawyer said Thursday.

Three of Savimbi’s children, who live in Paris, are seeking one million euros in damages from the French branch of game publisher Activision Blizzard.

Lawyers for both parties describe the case involving defamation over a video character as a first.

Savimbi was the founder and leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which fought a 27-year civil war with the government in Luanda.

He was killed in battle against MPLA government forces in 2002, paving the way for a peace deal that would bring an end to one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest conflicts, which erupted after independence from Portugal in 1975.

The war left at least half a million people dead and forced some four million civilians to flee their homes in the oil-rich nation.

The offending clip shows Savimbi, known as the “Black Cockerel” by his supporters, rallying his troops from the back of a tank as the MPLA advances on them, gunfire rattling all around.

The family’s lawyer Carole Enfert said Savimbi is represented as a “big halfwit who wants to kill everybody”, an “outrageous” image that does not reflect his personality as a “political leader and strategist”.