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Five abducted in border raid

Suspected UNITA insurgents abducted five Namibians at the weekend during a raid on a remote village west of the border town of Rundu, the NAMPA news agency of Namibia reported. Police regional commander for the Kavango region, Chief Inspector Olavi Hawanga, told NAMPA the incident occurred on Saturday morning in Nginga, about 170 km west of Rundu.

“A group of armed men surrounded villagers in that area and took all their belongings,” the report said. “They selected the young ones and crossed with them into Angola, and left women and elderly men behind without assaulting them.” According to the police, the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) crossed into southern Angola to try and find the hostages and their captors.

In a separate incident on Saturday at Musese, some 90 km west of Rundu, suspected UNITA insurgents “reportedly blew up” an irrigation pipeline.


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

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