OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg |Monday, 9.00PM
THE United Nations is to send a senior envoy to Angola with a ”strong message” for both Unita rebels and the Angolan government, the UN announced on Monday.
Ibrahim Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, was due to leave New York late on Monday. He will travel first to the French Riviera to see Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos before continuing to Angola to meet Unita leader Jonas Savimbi.
Brahimi’s mission is an interim move by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pending the appointment of a permanent replacement for his special representative in Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, who was killed in a plane crash last month. Beye’s replacement is expected to be appointed by the end of this week.
27