THE United Nations has evacuated its observers from the north-western Angolan province of Zaire, the national news agency Angop reported on Wednesday. It said UN peacekeepers deployed in the provincial capital, Mbanza-Congo, to protect equipment for the UN Mission in Angola were evacuated to Luanda, on Tuesday following an escalation in fighting in the area. This comes after UN special representative in Angola, Issa Diallo, said the organisation is sensitive to concerns that genocide will follow a UN withdrawal from the country. The UN mandate in Angola runs out on February 26.
PENSION VEHICLE ROBBED
THOUSANDS of Northern Province pensioners went home empty handed on Thursday when robbers made off with their monthly stipends from a Cash Pay Master Services armoured vehicle near Makibelo Village. Provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Ronel Otto said on Thursday that four heavily armed men in a white Volkswagen Jetta forced the van off the road between Pietersburg and Dendron.
UKRAINIAN MERCENARIES TWO-A-PENNY
A SPOKESPERSON for the Ukrainian government admitted yesterday that “Ukrainian citizens are involved in world conflicts” as mercenaries but gave no figures. Military specialists in the former Soviet Union estimate that hundreds, possible thousands of former Soviet soldiers are fighting for foreign armies, mainly in Africa and Yugoslavia. Their relative cheapness combined with high skills, experience of combat (in Afghanistan and Chechenia) and working knowledge of the Soviet-era weaponry still used in these regions, means they are sought after. “Foreign armies are naturally taking advantage of our economic difficulties,” said Pavel Kolesnikov, editor of Moscow’s Soldier of Fortune magazine.
HOSPITAL BOMBED
SUDANESE war planes have bombed a hospital run by an international medical charity in the southern town of Kajo Keji, completely destroying the immunisation block. Three bombs dropped on Wednesday on the hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres also caused extensive damage to the surgical theatre and the outpatient department, the organisation said on Thursday.There were no casualties.