Share & more
UNITA rebels attacked a village near the Angolan port city of Lobito, in Benguela province, killing nine people, wounding 14 others and razing about 50 dwellings, Radio Ecclesia reported on Tuesday. The report said the attackers raided the village of Anha do Norte, about 15 km north of Lobito, on Sunday, looting homes. They also burnt two tractors.
According to the report, panicked residents fled the village and began returning to their homes on Monday morning. It also said the government planned on building the country’s second oil refinery - a US $3 billion project - by 2006. In another attack, according to news reports, government forces traded gunfire with presumed UNITA rebels in Cunje, about 7 km from the Bie provincial capital of Kuito, in the early hours of Monday morning.
The attackers went directly to the house of a local soba (traditional authority) in the Caquerewa neighbourhood with the apparent aim of kidnapping him, the reports said.
One raider was wounded when he set off a land mine on the town’s defence perimeter and government forces also captured one AKM firearm and a 60 mm mortar, reports said, adding that the biggest industrial complex in Bie province was located in
Cunje, as well as a major fuel storage facility belonging to the state-controlled oil company Sonangol.
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
