More than 600 dead in Malanje since November

Angolan authorities on Saturday said more than 600 people have been killed in Malanje since November when the country’s warring parties resumed fighting.

About 700 others have been injured since UNITA rebels launched an offensive against territories held by the government.

Malanje, situated 400 km east of the capital Luanda, came under renewed long-range artillery fire from Jonas Savimbi’s rebels last week, resulting in five deaths on Friday, according to local officials.

Electricity was also cut off last week when the town’s power station was shelled and about 200 houses were destroyed, a journalist with the government daily ‘Jornal de Angola’ said.

The town, home to about 400,000 inhabitants, also now contains many displaced people and is faced with food shortages. Since November, it has faced almost daily rebel fire.

Relief workers said they have been able to hand out supplies to only 94,000 of the more than 200,000 displaced people who have swelled the town’s population.

Meanwhile, the presidents of South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe on Friday pledged to help Angola fend off a rebel challenge from UNITA. “We are committed to helping the government of Angola in every way,” President Nelson Mandela told reporters in Pretoria after his meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and President Sam Nujoma of Namibia.