Malanje under heavy shelling from UNITA

Humanitarian officials in the Angolan capital Luanda have reported that the government-controlled town of Malanje, 380 km east of the capital, had come under “particularly heavy shelling” from long-range UNITA artillery guns.

The shelling, which resumed on Friday after a two week lull, also continued on Tuesday, the sources told IRIN.

“The town is inaccessible and there is concern because WFP food stocks already in place cannot be distributed because of this situation,” one humanitarian official said.

After the government acknowledged that UNITA had captured the strategic Zaire Province capital, of M’banza Congo 500 km north of the Luanda, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos at the weekend announced at the weekend that he had assumed the helm of a new, smaller crisis government pledged to tackle UNITA as its main priority.

In a television broadcast this week, new Interior Minister Fernando da Piedade dos Santos urged the intelligence services to “heighten vigilance and detain terrorists” who infiltrated the country’s cities.

In a broadcast monitored by the BBC, he added: “A combat order has been issued. The mission of our personnel on the frontline is to fight UNITA leader Jonas) Savimbi’s gang until it is defeated. We cannot grant them a respite.”