At least 12 people were killed and several others wounded during rebel shelling of the government-controlled Angolan city of Malanje yesterday, Angolan national radio reported.
State Radio Nacional, broadcast from Luanda, reported that the residential suburbs of the city, some 400 km east of the capital, Luanda, had come under attack from heavy artillery fire during the afternoon.
At least 731 rebels were killed in a government offensive against UNITA rebels in central Angola last month, the armed forces chief of staff, Gen Joao Baptista de Matos, said yesterday.
"The war has only just begun," the general said in a press statement, adding: "The combatants will continue to fight bravely until [UNITA leader] Mr Jonas Sav imbi and his associates are neutralised."
Another five members of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola were captured in the offensive against Kuito and Huambo from December 7th to 31st, the statement said.
Kuito, with a population of 300,000, has been surrounded by rebels since December 9th. Lying 700 km east of Luanda, it suffered 25 days of shelling by the rebels, according to the local FAA commander, Gen Simione Mukume. On Sunday, the army announced the reopening of Kuito airport, which had been closed since the downing of an aircraft, blamed on the rebels, in late November. Gen De Matos flew into Kuito aboard a military aircraft on Saturday.
Heavy fighting broke out in central Angola in mid-November after the peace process, begun with accords signed in Lusaka, Zambia, in November 1994, broke down.
The UN's planned withdrawal of peace observers and suspension of flights from Angola's war zones threaten to worsen the plight of thousands facing starvation and disease, aid workers said yesterday.
The UN Observer Mission in Angola said on Sunday that it was suspending flights to Huambo after a second of its aircraft was shot down on Saturday near the central city, the scene of fierce fighting between government troops and UNITA rebels.
The downing of the C-130 transport aircraft with eight people aboard led Issa Diallo, the UN head in Angola, to express doubts about the future of the world body's peace mission as the country's 1994 peace accord unravels and civil war resumes. He ordered an immediate halt to all flights to Huambo and the withdrawal of UN observers from conflict areas.