Government, UNITA claim victories as president calls for tougher action

Angola’s army said it had captured the northern town of Buengas, which UNITA rebels had controlled for the last 10 years, the Roman Catholic radio network Ecclesia reported on Tuesday. Buengas sits on a triangle of land carved out by the Cuilo, Buenga and Caule rivers in Uige province. The town, about 350 km northeast of Luanda, had been occupied by UNITA rebels since 1992. It was captured late last week, along with the villages of Buenga Sul and Cuilo Cambozo, the network announced. Also on Tuesday, a UNITA press release gave details of recent offensives against government forces. The release said that UNITA had launched attacks in the northern provinces of Bengo, Malanje, Cuanza Sul and Huambo provinces in early June. UNITA said it had killed about 50 government soldiers in the offensives and captured the mining town of Milando in Malnje province. There was no independent confirmation of the claims. Meanwhile, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos appealed for foreign powers to increase pressure on UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi to end the civil war that has raged since 1975. “The international community has to exert more pressure on Jonas Savimbi who has still not said explicitly if he wants peace or more war,” dos Santos told a news conference during an official visit to Belgium. Dos Santos added that Savimbi had to “solemnly and expressly renounce war as a way to resolve Angola’s problems” and implement a peace deal brokered by the United Nations in 1994. In an effort to clamp down on Savimbi’s diamond trading, that he uses to bankroll his army, Belgium signed an agreement on Monday with the Angolan government to ensure rebel gems do not make it onto the world’s largest diamond trading centre in the Belgian port of Antwerp.