UNITA rebels destroy bridge between Cuito and Andulo

The bridge over the Ndjuvaca River between the Angolan central highland cities of Cuito and Andulo was attacked and destroyed on Tuesday morning by UNITA rebels, according to a military source. In a report on Wednesday LUSA quoted the source as saying that an undetermined number of rebels dynamited the 32-metre span after an intense exchange of gunfire forced its garrison to withdraw.

The report also quoted the source as saying that two civil defense soldiers had been killed and four wounded in the attack. The purported aim of the action was to affect overland traffic in Bie province, where the capital Cuito is now cut off from regions to the north. The airport at Andulo, a former UNITA bastion 94 kms north of Cuito, was the second biggest in the province and was often used as an alternative to the one in Cuito, the report said.