Government claims control of Namibian border zone

The Angolan government said this week that it had re-gained full administrative control of the volatile Dirico district along the country’s southern border with Namibia. In a brief dispatch on Tuesday, the state news agency Angop reported that “government administration was reinstated” in the Mucusso area of Cuando Cubango Province north of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. For years, the area has been under control of the UNITA rebel movement. “A provincial government delegation has been in Rundu (Namibia) since 6 August, making preparations for the reinstatement of government administration in Dirico, Cuangar and Calai,” the agency said referring to three strategic towns just inside Angola along the Namibian border. “The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) liberated these areas and Mucusso nine months ago within the framework of Operation Restoration.” Meanwhile, Angolan state television reported on Wednesday that the government had also set up a new administrative network in Lucusse, in the neighbouring province of Moxico, which shares borders with Zambia. Lucusse, lies 135 km southeast of the Moxico provincial capital, Luena, along the main road to the Zambian border. “Lucusse was for many years under the control of Savimbi’s troops,” the television report said referring to the UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. “Recently it attained politico-military stability with the re-establishment of state administration.” Fighting between FAA forces and UNITA rebels along the Zambian and Angolan borders in recent months has resulted in thousands of refugees fleeing into the two neighbouring countries.