THE 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) is seeking concrete ways to cut off fuel supplies to Angolan rebels, SADC members attending an annual meeting in Kinshasa announced at the weekend. Despite a United Nations embargo against rebels, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) continues to profit from a lucrative diamond trade and uses the money to purchase weapons, ammunition and fuel for the war effort. On Saturday, energy ministers from the SADC formed a committee, headed by South Africa and Zimbabwe, to devise a strategy to cut off oil supplies to the insurgents. The task force will have two months to “compile date and formulate a strategy to stop the supply of petroleum products to UNITA,” a statement released in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo said. Angola, which is a SADC member, has been at war since 1975. – AFP
Friday June 8, 2001