ANGOLAN government troops have seized two UNITA rebel strongholds in the centre of the country, Andulo and Bailundo, in a major setback to the rebels, military and diplomatic sources said in Luanda on Tuesday. Media reports on Tuesday said that advance units of government troops have entered Bailundo, following statements from UNITA that the town had been virtually razed and hundreds of civilians killed by air raids and shelling. The southern African country plunged back into full-scale civil war from November last year after the last collapse of the latest bid by the United Nations and the former Cold War powers to settle the conflict in 1994. Defence Minister Kundi Pahyama late Monday told the press that “winning two battles does not mean winning the war. We want to go further: break UNITA’s spinal column,” he said.
28