Rebel attack near capital

An estimated 250 UNITA rebels raided the small town of Catate near the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Monday. Official news reports said at least 10 of the rebels and four civilians were killed. In what Luanda-based diplomats described as a raid to steal food stocks and to show that it can conduct operations near Luanda, the attackers fled when the army intervened. Local news reports quoted residents of Catate, a town in Bengo Province 70 km southeast of Luanda, as saying food stocks from a local Catholic mission on the outskirts of the town had been looted. An army statement said the raid occurred at dawn on Monday. “Angolan armed forces units deployed in the area reacted promptly, killing 10 enemy soldiers and seizing their respective weapons,” it said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest update on the situation that six vehicles had been attacked and burned on 20 July in an ambush near the Bengo provincial town of Santa Teresa. Meanwhile, the army also said that the Angolan armed forces had killed 34 UNITA soldiers and captured three in military operations last week in Cuemba region in the central highlands province of Bie. It gave scant details of the clashes. But the OCHA report dated 28 July said insecurity remained a concern in Bie: “Insecurity has been reported in the Bie areas of Cambandua, Cuemba, Chiumba, Dungo, Cassombo, Chimuco, Caluimbe, Camacupa, Cavoco, Sani and Chiteque.” On 18 July, it said, four children were wounded in a landmine explosion in Camburucuto, Kuito. On 19 July, one person was hurt in a similar explosion in Muinha, north of Camacupa, while on 21 July seven people were killed when a landmine exploded near Belo Horizonte. OCHA said humanitarian agencies and the government were investigating reports that an estimated 9,500 people displaced by fighting had set up eight makeshift camps in the Bie towns of Kuito, Chinguar, Andulo, Catabola, Camacupa and Cunhinga during the third week of July. Insecurity in neighbouring Huambo Province during the past two months had resulted in nearly 1,000 people fleeing to the town of Longonjo, OCHA said. OCHA said that in the west coast province of Benguela, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) had identified 130 cases of malnutrition among children in Dokota district and 83 in Lombroke. CRS and WFP were assisting them. In a province which has escaped the worst ravages of the civil war, OCHA said 13 people were abducted on 18 July when an armed group attacked the Dundee Catholic Mission near Ganda, a town some 200 km inland.