New Fighting in Angola Involves 2 Rebel Groups

Fighting erupted in Angola with UNITA rebels shelling northern cities and separatist guerrillas launching attacks in the oil enclave of Cabinda, government sources said Monday.

The state-run Jornal de Angola newspaper said separatists working with UNITA rebels attacked a government army barracks near the town of Belize on Sunday.

An army spokesman said UNITA killed a government soldier in an attack on barracks about four miles from the northwestern enclave of Cabinda on Saturday. No details were given.

No independent confirmation was immediately available.

The low-level guerrilla struggle of the fractured Front for the Liberation of Cabinda Enclave is not connected with the full-scale civil war that has been waged for nearly 20 years by UNITA, or the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

Cabinda is separated from the rest of Angola by Zaire’s corridor to the sea. Liberation Front rebels have rarely attacked the mostly offshore oil installations that yield much of Angola’s oil output.

State-run radio said UNITA was continuing to shell the city of N’dalatando, 120 miles east of Luanda, the capital, which was recaptured by the government in May.

Angola’s civil war erupted after it gained independence from Portugal in 1975. A brief peace following 1991 accords ended when UNITA rejected defeat in 1992 elections.