IDPs increase, UNITA commander is killed

Civilians continue to seek safety in government-controlled towns across the country as they flee intensifying fighting between rebel UNITA forces and Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) troops, according to humanitarian officials.

An aid worker in Kuito, capital of the central Bie province, told IRIN on Wednesday there were large influxes of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in area where there had been attacks, but that there continued to be a "steady movement (of IDPs) into Kuito and Camacupa", also in Bie.

Large numbers of Angolans have fled into Zambia, Namibia and Angolan towns in recent weeks to escape a major government offensive in the provinces of Bie, Moxico and Cuando Cubango. Humanitarian sources who spoke to IRIN attributed the large displacements to military activity in the region, but added that population movements elsewhere in the country indicated widespread insecurity.

World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson in Angola, Cristina Muller, told IRIN: "I think during this week there has been a high number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) arriving in places where WFP is present." The number of people would be determined after everyone was registered, she said.

Muller added, however, that there was a stabilisation in the number of IDPs entering therapeutic feeding centres, especially in Bie, indicating an improvement in their nutritional status compared to about six months ago.

She said another indication that the number of IDPs was rising was an increase in the number of landmine accidents reported in the past week. The victims were usually IDPs who went in search of firewood on arrival at a new area or camp without knowing the area was mined, she said.

Meanwhile, the FAA reported on Monday that their offensive launched in Bie last week had resulted in the destruction of a strategically important UNITA base and the death of the area's operational commander. Lusa reported that according to a government military source, an offensive around the town of Umpulo, about 180 km southeast of Kuito and about 650 km from the capital Luanda, had led to the death of 26 UNITA soldiers, including a brigadier identified only as "Cerqueira".

The source told Lusa that Angolan officials believed Cerqueira could have been responsible for UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi's movements. They thought Savimbi could be in the area if this was the case. The Angolan government said recently it believed that Savimbi and other senior UNITA leaders were hiding in the interior or southeastern parts of the country. It also said the rebel activity was intensifying in the north of the country, particularly in Uige province, in an attempt to keep open arms smuggling routes through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Angolan government and military officials discussed the issue with their DRC counterparts in meetings this week, but details of the discussions - which also follow a United Nations report that UNITA continues to smuggle arms through the DRC in spite of an arms embargo - were not released.