Rebels and Government Forces Intensify Angolan Civil War

This south west African nation’s resurgent civil war has intensified with a new rebel push against the besieged city of Cuito and government attempts to pound the UNITA guerrillas into submission in their Huambo stronghold.

The government says 14,000 people have been killed in the seven-month rebel onslaught against Cuito.

The rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said Tuesday that it has seized part of Cuito, where the government says UNITA shelling has killed more than 200 civilians in the past few days.

Rebel radio, monitored in the island state of Sao Tome and Principe, said UNITA forces smashed a battalion of government soldiers as they forced their way into the city on the eastern fringe of the central highlands.

Angolan television, saying UNITA had embarked on an “extraordinary offensive” against Cuito, accused the rebels of shelling “those areas with the highest concentration of civilians,” wounding at least 200.

“Given the serious shortage of medicines, such wounds are practically death certificates,” it said.

State radio said Monday that Cuito was under intense fire.

“There are many corpses in the streets,” it said, adding that many residents were trapped in homes without food and many dead probably remained unaccounted for.

While UNITA tightened its stranglehold on Cuito, rebel radio said government air raids on the nearby rebel capital, Huambo, had killed more than 200 civilians over the past week.

The number of dead in Huambo, approximately 60 miles west of Cuito, was rising rapidly due to lack of medicine, blood and clean water to treat the wounded, it said.