Angolan Rebels Claim Big Win
Rebels claimed Saturday they retook Angola’s second-largest city, Huambo, after two weeks of fighting.
A government military official denied the claim, made on rebel radio, and it was impossible to make an independent verification.
On another front of the renewed fighting, state radio reported Saturday that the rebels were preparing to attack Angola’s oil-rich northern Cabinda province.
Operators of Angola’s biggest oil company, Cabinda, said Saturday they were evacuating scores of foreigners as “a protective measure.” But a Cabinda official said there appeared to be no threat of an imminent rebel attack, despite the radio reports.
The rebels overran the oil town Soyo last week and seized 18 foreign employees of a Belgian oil company.
The rebels still held the foreigners Saturday, despite promises to release them. Fifteen of the workers are from Portugal, and the rest are Argentine, British and Italian.
In and around Luanda on Friday, mobs irate at reports that Zaire is helping the UNITA rebels went on an anti-Zairean rampage of rape, arson and lynching.
The Zairean Embassy said at least 62 people were killed.
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