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Angolan Government Controls Most of Diamond-Rich Region
The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) have managed to reverse the military situation in the northeastern diamond-rich provinces of Lunda-Sul and Lunda-Norte over the last few months, controlling 11 of the 13 districts in the region, an official source of the Angolan military said Tuesday.
The information was released by the commander of the eastern military front Gen. Sa Miranda, who said that after the FAA's operation in the region, the rebels led by Jonas Savimbi had abandoned several areas of prospection.
The illegal prospection and sale of diamonds in the Angolan northeastern provinces, mainly Lunda-Sul and Lunda-Norte, constitute the economic pillar for the Angolan rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) during the past 26 years of civil conflicts in the southern African country.
"In other areas they (the rebels) are restricted to manual extraction of diamonds, as they no longer manage to get fuels for their machinery that extract diamonds in industrial scale", said Miranda.
He explained that the rebels' main threat currently lies with their guerrilla actions against the civilian populations, which brings the number of displaced persons to higher figures in the northeast part of the country.
According to data issued by the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration, there are 133,000 displaced people in the Lunda-Sul Province, among them 115,000 staying in the city of Saurimo.
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