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"More than 80 people were killed and various others wounded while others
fled into the bush after an attack near Kuango," said the US radio service, which has a local station in the Angolan capital.
The aim of the attack on Saturday, which a local source blamed on members of UNITA, was to steal food, the source said. Many of the wounded leapt into the Kuango River, the source told VOA. The attack follows the murder of six chiefs two weeks ago by UNITA rebels in the Kuango area, which is deemed to have the best diamonds in Angola.
Since its formation in 1966 UNITA has used diamonds to buy arms in illegal trade that earned the rebels, under elusive leader Jonas Savimbi, as much as US $3 billion between 1992 and 1998. Many of Angola's thousands of diamond diggers, known as garimpeiros, come from across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was not clear from the report how many foreigners had been killed.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
