"The Cabindian Armed Forces (FAC) report that, in clashes with Angolan military personnel in the Belize region, in the Cabindan village of Tundu Maselese, on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRCongo], 12 deaths were recorded", it is stated in the note sent to Lusa.
The same source said that this Tuesday, at 3:20 am, a unit from the FAC special operations command "carried out an attack against a platoon of the Angolan Armed Forces" in that village in the Belize region and that, during its action, "12 Angolan soldiers died and four were seriously injured".
In the statement, FLEC-FLAC also stated that the FAC will intensify attacks "against Angolan soldiers throughout the territory of Cabinda".
The document, signed by Lieutenant General João Cruz Mavinga Lúcife, head of the FAC Special Forces directorate, guarantees that the Angolan side "is solely responsible for the worsening of the conflict" in that region.
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.
