“The General Staff of the Cabindan Armed Forces (FAC) vehemently denounces a new incursion by the Angolan armed forces into the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo and condemns the repeated attacks on Cabindan refugee centres in the province of Kongo-Central,” reads a statement signed by Lieutenant General João Cruz Mavinga Lúcifer, the head of the FAC’s special forces directorate.
According to the document, in the early hours of Tuesday, “the Angolan army attacked the Lundu-Matende refugee camp” in the DR Congo, causing civilian casualties, including seven children who were injured.
“This flagrant violation of international humanitarian law is part of a constant escalation of violence orchestrated by the Angolan regime against the Cabindan population,” the FAC stated.
The armed wing of the Cabinda independence forces has called on the international community, “in view of this tragic situation and the continued deterioration of human rights”, to mobilise for “urgent military intervention to protect Cabindan civilians” and “concerted diplomatic action to put an end to the war of aggression waged by the Angolan regime in the territory of Cabinda”.
They are also calling for the creation of mechanisms to protect refugee populations, considering that “the crisis in Cabinda continues to be one of the most tragic” of our time, “although it is largely ignored on the international scene”.
“The Cabindan Armed Forces (FAC) call on the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and all human rights organisations to respond to this appeal and come to the aid of the oppressed people of Cabinda”, they also urge.
The Cabinda State Liberation Front – Cabinda Armed Forces (FLEC/FAC) has been demanding for several years the independence of the territory of Cabinda, a province in the north of the country, from where a large part of the country's oil comes, invoking the Treaty of Simulambuco, of 1885, which designates that territorial part as a Portuguese protectorate.
