Lisbon | Wednesday
FANGOLAN rebel movement Unita on Tuesday claimed to have killed 298 government soldiers, police and militia forces in operations between November 8 and 19, according to a statement.
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) said it had taken the town of Gamba in the eastern Moxico province on November 11 and to have carried out simultaneous attacks on garrisons at Katola and Kandingo in the same province six days later.
Jonas Savimbi’s movement also said it had killed at least nine government soldiers in the southeastern Cuando-Cubango province on November 10.
Unita alleged that the troops of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) were “returning from an attack on the civilian hospital at Chapuma in Zambia”.
Zambian authorities have charged that seven villagers were killed on November 9 by suspected Angolan soldiers who crossed into Zambia while pursuing Angolan rebels.
The Lusaka government also accused FAA troops of seizing hostages in a bid for land on the Zambian side of the border. The Angolan government has denied the allegations and blamed military incursions on Unita.
Angolan troops are often accused of committing acts of banditry in Zambia, including kidnapping villagers near the border.
Zambia shares a long border with Angola, where a devastating civil war has raged almost non-stop since the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975.
Other Unita attacks were carried out in eight other provinces, the statement issued in Lisbon said. Ten Unita soldiers were killed, 16 wounded and one left missing. – AFP