ANGOLA: UNITA acquires major conventional weaponry

In recent months, the UNITA rebel movement in Angola has acquired tanks, aircraft, helicopters and other military hardware likely to give it a new edge in the Angolan civil war. According to analysts based in South Africa and London, the movement led by Jonas Savimbi, was now capable of switching tactics from hit-and-run guerilla attacks to conventional warfare. The recent purchase of six Russian-built MiG-23 fighter jets and six Russian-built Hind Mi-25 assault helicopters, they said would enable UNITA to dent the air superiority Angolan government forces have enjoyed during nearly 25 years of civil war since independence from Portugal in 1975. Richard Cornwall, an analyst at the South African-based Institute for Security Studies, told IRIN: "UNITA is getting stronger every day, and now they have ended the government's monoploy on air power." The institute, he said, understood that the rebels had also acquired about 50 tanks, and 75 armoured troop carriers. "They also have major artillery and these are purchases which could change the course of the war." Most of the military hardware had been purchased from Ukraine and North Korea. It was mostly flown directly to UNITA-controlled air bases in Angola directly from Ukraine aboard large former Soviet Il-76 and AN-124 cargo planes. UNITA forces were also receiving help in "training and logistics" from its old ally, Morocco, Cornwall said. In a situation where many government-held towns across Angola are held under siege by UNITA forces, a London-based analyst said the government was finding it difficult to push the rebels back because they had changed to more conventional tactics. With shelling of two provincial capitals, Kuito and Malanje, continuing this week according to UN sources, the analyst in London said the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) had been finding lately that they were fighting a different enemy. "The problem faced by the FAA is that they have poor intelligence on UNITA," the analyst said. Both experts agreed that government troops were demoralised, poorly trained and often having to fend for themselves. Cornwall also cited policy disagreements between the government in Luanda and senior officers. "This all bodes well for UNITA who have been stockpiling weapons for months now which they have purchased from nations only too willing to sell them weapons," he said. But like they government army, UNITA troops too, had to fend for themselves and eat what they could find. Some of the recent arms purchases by UNITA had been reported in Angola's official media and in South African newspapers. "It appears to be South Africans and Ukrainians who are operating the new equipment," the London analyst said referring to the new aircraft. See also IRIN-SA report, 'ANGOLA: Illegal diamond sales funding UNITA war effort'. Further information is also available in an IRIN background report on the UNITA.