U.N. Announces Cease-Fire in Angola : Africa: Three days of fighting threatened nation with renewed civil war.

The United Nations announced Sunday night that it had arranged a cease-fire between government and rebel troops in Angola, where three days of fighting had threatened to renew civil war.

The cease-fire took effect at 12:01 a.m. today, and details will be worked out by U.N. officials in the southwestern African nation, according to a statement issued by Joe Sills, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in New York.

The statement also said foreigners being held by the warring sides would be released. Sills was not immediately available to elaborate on how many foreigners were being held and by whom.

Unconfirmed reports Sunday said at least 100 people, perhaps as many as 200, died over the weekend in battles that threatened to ruin the 1991 peace accords between the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The accords were designed to halt a 16-year civil war in the former Portuguese colony in which at least 350,000 people died.

On Sunday, government forces backed by armored personnel carriers and armed civilians moved against UNITA strongholds in the capital, pounding the rebels with mortar shells and machine-gun fire.

Armed civilians including teen-agers fought alongside government police against the rebels.

Portuguese news reports said two U.N. monitors were among the dead. Officials at the U.N. mission in Luanda monitoring the peace accords said they could not confirm the report.

Some of the heaviest fighting raged in Luanda’s diplomatic district of Miramar, where a UNITA garrison resisted with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The fighting in Angola, which began Friday, followed Sept. 29-30 elections that appeared at first to have put the country on a peaceful road to democratic government.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ ruling MPLA party scored a decisive victory over UNITA in parliamentary voting. But Dos Santos fell short of the 50% needed to win the presidency outright, getting 49.6% of the vote to 40.1% for Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA. The government agreed to a runoff election for president.

A U.N. observer team declared the elections “generally free and fair.” But Savimbi, who had agreed before the election to abide by the results, made allegations of massive fraud. Savimbi demanded a larger U.N. presence for any new election, and that a transitional government be formed to run the country until the next round of voting.

Tensions rose as Savimbi seemed prepared to return to guerrilla war rather than accept electoral defeat. Last week, the government accused UNITA forces of attacking a government installation and responded with assaults of its own.

But Jardo Muekalia, a UNITA spokesman in Washington, said the attacks on his group were unprovoked.

“The fighting in Luanda is basically an all-out offensive by the government,” he said. “There is no hiding their intention--to cleanse Angola of UNITA.” Muekalia put the number of UNITA dead at about 100.

Lisbon’s TSF radio had reported earlier that the two sides were in radio contact Sunday, trying to work out a truce. Muekalia confirmed that UNITA was trying to get U.N. observers to re-establish a cease-fire.

In Luanda, witnesses said police units backed by armed civilians entered the Miramar diplomatic district at noon and pushed toward Savimbi’s residence, which is surrounded by foreign missions.

Savimbi left Luanda last month for Huambo, 310 miles to the southeast. But his residence has been one of UNITA’s main bases in the capital.

Outnumbered rebels were trying to escape Miramar, the witnesses said, but UNITA’s scarlet and green flag still flew over the residence.

Witnesses also reported that the Hotel Turismo, another UNITA base in the capital, was burned after a bombardment by government police. Muekalia said UNITA followers left the hotel before the attack.

Officials of both sides said a local truce was holding in Huambo. But UNITA Gen. Paulo Mango told TSF radio early in the day that attempts to end hostilities in Luanda had been “fruitless.”

There also were reports of fighting from other parts of the country. Angola’s state news agency Angop said government helicopters bombed UNITA forces attacking the port of Benguela, south of Luanda.

Angola was once a Cold War battleground, with U.S.- and South Africa-supported UNITA battling a government aided by 50,000 Cuban troops and millions of dollars in military assistance from the former Soviet Union. The Cubans now are gone and Western aid to UNITA has ended as well.

Under the 1991 peace accords, Savimbi and Dos Santos agreed to democratic elections. And the United States, along with other foreign powers, promised to support any government chosen in a free and fair election.

When UNITA charged fraud in the September voting, Washington, which had contributed $250 million in covert support to the rebels during their struggle against the government, bluntly told Savimbi that he could expect no more assistance if he decided to return to guerrilla war.