Luanda | Tuesday
REBELS from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) last week attacked and captured a town in the central Huambo province, in a violation of a ceasefire agreement signed only hours earlier, local radio reported on Monday.
The attack on Mundombe left two army soldiers dead, while a ruling party official and a resident of the town disappeared, the report by Roman Catholic radio Ecclesia said.
The attack came just one day after the announcement Friday in Luanda that the army and the rebels had agreed to halt fighting in the 27-year civil war.
The same radio network reported that the commander of Angolan rebel forces, General Abreu Kamorteiro, who signed the deal was taken to a hospital after falling sick.
Kamorteiro was hospitalised at Lwena in the eastern province of Moxico, the report said, but did not give a source or details.
A second round of ceasefire talks between the army and rebel leaders set to take place in Lwena on Monday were delayed until Wednesday because of “technical problems,” army officials said.
The talks were to detail the process of working towards formally signing a definitive ceasefire, following a landmark meeting Friday between Kamorteiro and army general Geraldo Nunda, which yielded the landmark agreement to work toward ending the fighting in Africa’s longest-running war.
This first step towards peace in Angola’s civil war came after the February 22 death of Unita leader and founder Jonas Savimbi, who was killed in battle.
His death had reignited hopes for peace in a nation that has never known peace since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Meanwhile, a Unita member said from exile in France that the ceasefire had “no credibility.”
“It’s a completely staged show,” the representative, George “Marcelino” Sanguende, said in Paris.
“We saw the signature on the television all the Unita generals present were prisoners. For us, this ceasefire agreement is not credible because they did not have freedom of movement,” he said.
Sanguende’s claim echoes that of other Unita members living in Europe.
A representative for the rebels in Portugal, Rui Oliveira, was quoted by the country’s Lusa news agency on Saturday also calling the talks a “show” and saying three top rebel generals involved in the negotiations had been arrested last month. – AFP