The presidents of Angola, Namibia and Zambia have urged the world to enforce United Nations sanctions against Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and have blamed him for blocking moves to end Angola’s 26-year-old civil war, Reuters has reported. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Namibia’s Sam Nujoma and Zambian President Frederick Chiluba made their plea on Tuesday at the end of talks in the Zambian capital Lusaka on border security and regional stability.
Nujoma, Angola’s staunch military ally in the wars in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said Savimbi remained the biggest obstacle to peace in the oil-and-diamond-rich southwest African nation. “We have to commit all our efforts to ensure that UNITA and Savimbi are not allowed to use any of our territories to carry out acts of sabotage against the Angolan people,” he said. Dos Santos’s visit, his first to Lusaka since 1994, signalled an end to Angolan tensions with Zambia which almost led to war.
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