In the note, entitled "War Communiqué" and signed by lieutenant general João Cruz Mavinga Lúcife, head of the directorate of the Special Forces of the Cabindean Armed Forces (FAC), the independence movement accuses the military of, in retaliation for an attack on its positions, on the night of Saturday to Sunday, carried out "punitive action against the population".
"On the night of Saturday to Sunday, the Cabindian Armed Forces (FAC) attacked FAA positions in the Tando-Nzinze area, in the village of Tchiobo, neutralizing six FAA soldiers and causing several injuries", with the Angolan military abandoning weapons and "other documents of high strategic value", reads the statement.
The alleged retaliation occurred in the early hours of Monday, with the FAC accusing the FAA of, as a result of the "punitive action" against the village of Tchiobo, having killed four civilians and seriously injured seven others.
"The population of the village of Tchiobo, fearing the FAA's fury, was forced to flee towards the Mbaka-Nkosi border in the Democratic Republic of Congo", the statement highlights.
"The General Staff of the Cabindian Armed Forces FAC issues an ultimatum to all soldiers of Cabindan origin who were forced to join the FAA to join the resistance, before it is too late", concludes FLEC.
FLEC has been fighting for the independence of the territory, from which much of the country's oil comes, for several years, claiming that the enclave was a Portuguese protectorate – as established in the Treaty of Simulambuco, signed in 1885 – and not an integral part of the Angolan territory.
The Government normally refuses to recognize the existence of dead soldiers resulting from guerrilla actions by independence fighters, or any situation of instability in that province in the north of the country, always emphasizing the unity of the territory.
