Angolan government forces may have won a crucial victory in Unita’s ‘zone of control’, writes Chris Gordon in Luanda
The Angolan government has destroyed Unita’s stronghold in the city of Bailondo two weeks after starting a new and long- awaited military offensive.
The Angolan air force unleashed its recently acquired Su-27 planes in a massive aerial bombardment backed by a ground attack.
This new government counter-offensive against Unita was launched without publicity, right at the end of the dry season, though most analysts believed that there would be no push against the rebels this year.
Unita representative Carlos Morgado claimed on Portuguese radio that Bailondo had been virtually destroyed by the bombardment, in which “hundreds” had died. But there is no independent confirmation of the widely reported fall of Bailondo to government forces.
A Luanda-based diplomat says he is not aware of any official statement announcing the capture of the city by the FAA, the Angolan army. The United Nations only confirmed there is heavy fighting in the region.
Jackie Potgieter of the Institute for Security Studies has been trying to establish the truth of the claims. Potgieter says the FAA will only say it “has control of the situation on the ground in Bailondo”.
Potgieter believes FAA ground forces are being held back by Unita on the other side of the main river crossing, 7km south of the city. He pointed out that Unita has major lines of defence around Bailondo, which is very difficult to capture. “There are extensive minefields and trenches defending the town against ground attack,” says Potgieter.
A diplomat said there could be reasons for the government not announcing the fall of Bailondo: “We do not know whether Unita made a tactical withdrawal from Bailondo, or what else Unita might have up its sleeve.”
Unita has as yet made no counter-attack, despite the FAA’s capture of Catchiungo, just south of Bailondo, a few days earlier.
Bailondo has been Unita’s military headquarters since 1994. The town is of great historical significance to Unita and its leader, Jonas Savimbi. It was once the seat of an Ovimbundu chiefdom to which Savimbi has family links.
Bailondo is one of the four key towns in Unita’s main “zone of control” in the central highlands. The rebels’ refusal to hand these areas back to government control last year was one of the triggers for the current round of fighting.
The destruction of the town is a serious blow to Unita, but probably not as strategically significant as the government had hoped. Diplomats in Luanda described the FAA’s tactics as launching a medium- scale offensive, with more limited objectives – to destroy Unita’s regular forces, leaving Unita with only guerrilla capacity.
Unita’s conventional warfare capabilities had marked a new phase in Angola’s war, with its troops better equipped than the run-down government army for the first time. Unita’s motorised military capacity was based around the Bailondo region and used with great success to repel previous government attacks on the town. But according to the ISS, the three motorised brigades have been moved – one north of Andulo, one to Moxico province and the last protecting Unita’s northern corridor through Malange and Uige.
Does the assault on Bailondo offer the government the military success it needs so badly? Between May, when support for the government was more vocal, and September, the government came under increasing attack for what is now being described as “super- corruption”, and for its failure to deliver even a minimum of security to its neglected populations. A military victory will strengthen the government’s weakened position, if the army can deliver one.
Corruption within the army means, for instance, that private aviation companies owned by the generals – there are more than 50 registered in Luanda – are used to ferry arms and men into the interior, and to carry out private business interests at the same time.
Lacking enough food and basic necessities, FAA soldiers live off the land and local peoples, as do Unita troops, adding to the starvation in the interior
There is no doubt, though, that some attacks on the government have been fuelled by a “black” propaganda campaign, as part of Unita’s strategy to cause an implosion in Luanda and to regain international legitimacy. The real corruption gets obscured amid unsourced allegations.
Unita claims the FAA was successful in destroying Bailondo as a result of using chemical weapons, including napalm, exfoliants and phosphorus bombs.
A UN representative says the government denies using chemical weapons. Arms procurement experts have not identified the presence of these weapons in the FAA’s armoury.
However, the Institute for Security Studies believes the FAA may have used fuel-air bombs, which are not illegal weapons under the Geneva Conventions, in Bailondo.
Potgieter says a civilian witness account of the bombing run, seen from the road between Bailondo and Andulo, indicates that fuel-air bombs were used, from the description of the canisters and the behaviour of the explosives. The witness was said to be close enough to see these details – smoke from these bombs, for instance, looks like napalm from a distance.
Fuel-air bombs were last used in Angola in 1994 by Executive Outcomes, and a cache was thought to have been left behind.
It is clear that expert verification on the ground is needed, but this is unlikely to be forthcoming.