/ 20 July 2000

ANGOLAN CHURCH WORKERS ADDUCTED

GUNMEN raided a remote Roman Catholic mission in Angola and abducted 14 church workers and up to 20 civilians, the archbishop of Luanda said on Wednesday. The raid by unknown assailants at dawn on Tuesday came nine days after 21 children were kidnapped in a similar assault. This time the attackers targeted the Swiss mission of Our Lady of La Salette in the town of Dunde, about 500 kilometers south of the capital Luanda, Archbishop Zacarias Kamwenho said in Luanda. Those abducted included two priests, Pedro Chingando and Joaquim Hatewa, Sister Valentina Longwe and 11 other church workers, he said. The others were children, women and elderly people the mission assisted. Kamwenho said it was not immediately clear who perpetrated the attack. Police in Dunde blamed the rebel group UNITA, which is engaged in a 25-year-old war with the government, independent radio station Luanda Antena Comercial. On June 9, a 16-year-old boy was killed, four other children were injured and 21 others were abducted when about 100 gunmen attacked a residential school and training center in the province of Huambo.