Attack on diamond town

At least 70 people were killed and 15 wounded when armed men attacked the north Angolan diamond-mining town of Chinguvu, close to the Congo border, Lusa reported on Monday. Quoting an unnamed military source who identified the attackers as UNITA, the news agency said about 100 rebels were involved in the Saturday assault on a residential area of Chinguvu. A number of local residents were taken away by the attackers.

One resident who was able to escape, Albertina Camuenhi, told Lusa that Chinguvu had not been garrisoned for years and that the only soldiers present were Katangans from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The Katangans, who in the past fought against troops loyal to the Kinshasa regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, have since settled in the potentially diamond-wealthy Chinguvu region.

Meanwhile, the governor of southern Angola’s Cunene province, Pedro Mutinde, was due to undergo surgery at a hospital in the Namibian capital a day after he was seriously wounded in a land mine explosion, Angolan national radio reported on Monday. The state broadcaster said Mutinde was out of mortal danger although his foot may have to be amputated. He was injured on Sunday when his vehicle set off an anti-tank mine near Humbe, about 100 km northwest of the provincial capital, Ondjiva.

In a separate development, UNITA rebels overran and occupied the southern Angolan town of Ngola for two days at the weekend, Catholic Radio Ecclesia reported on Monday. It was the second strike against the key highway in one week. Citing a military source, the radio said counter-attacking government troops had routed the rebels and retaken the town, which lies on Angola’s main north-south highway.