/ 11 November 2001

3 CHILDREN KILLED BY MORTAR SHELL IN ANGOLA

THREE children have been killed in southern Angola after playing with an unexploded mortar shell, a police representative told the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Wednesday. The three children were playing in the southern Angolan city of Lubango, the capital city of Huila province, with an 82-millimetre mortar shell they had found on wasteland in a low-income district of the city when it exploded. Huila is one of the Angolan provinces the least affected by accidents involving unexploded mines and other devices strewn across the southern African country in 26 years of war between the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) rebel group and government forces. The official death toll from mines and other explosive devices in Angola last year was 388, with some 452 injured. – AFP