OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday, 7.00PM
ANGOLAN Unita rebels took the strategic town of Mussende in the north of the country overnight, according to the Kwanza-Sul provincial government.
Mussende, a farming town located at an important crossroads linking Malanje, Kwanza-Norte and Kwanza-Sul provinces, was a stronghold of the rebels backing Jonas Savimbi during the civil war which was tio have ended with a peace deal in 1994.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, the European Union imposed new sanctions against Unita including a ban on imports of diamonds from Angola not accompanied by a government certificate of origin, for its failure to completely disarm and hand over to the government territories under its control, as provided for in the 1994 peace agreement.
Unita troops are reported to have already taken three other towns in Kwanza-Sul: Lonia, Kariangu and Songue, the latter after heavy fighting with police, government radio reported. On Tuesday, three people including a police officer died in clashes in the hills of Cerra-de-Kanda in the northern province of Zaire, police said.
Meanwhile, the ruling Congolese Labour Party has offered to help the Angolan government in its fight against the Unita rebellion. Party secretary general Ambroise Noumazalaye said on Monday: “It is up to Angola to tell us what help it wants.” Angolan soldiers helped General Denis Sassou Nguesso’s militia defeat government troops and remove President Pascal Lissouba from office in October 1997, in a power tussle said to have been masterminded by a foreign power.