Luanda - Angolan government troops, supported by Namibian forces, have seized the former headquarters of the rebel movement UNITA after intense fighting, state television reported yesterday.
The town of Jamba in the south of the country is now in the hands of government forces, according to the report, but this has not been officially confirmed by army commanders.
During the course of an offensive this year to wipe out supporters of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) after the collapse late in 1998 of the last UN-mediated peace pact, Luanda's general staff has been cautious pending confirmation of successive gains.
Jamba, near Angola's south-eastern border with Namibia and Zambia, has grown as a settlement around UNITA's first bush base in the war for independence which has pitted Mr Jonas Savimbi's rebels against Luanda.