According to António do Rosário Luciano, spokesman for the general staff of the CTF, the conflict in Angola, limited to the north, east and south by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, has already crossed the borders and "threatens the security of neighbouring countries".
In a statement FLEC-FAC said that the latest clashes between Cabindan forces and the Angolan army were recorded on 19 and 20 June in Mbata-Mbengi, a border village in the DRC.
In the fight, 11 people died, including six civilians - who were reportedly killed by Angolan soldiers on suspicion of supporting the independent movement, according to the communiqué - four Angolan soldiers and one from FLEC-FAC, with eight others wounded.
The separatists criticise the intensification of Angolan military operations at a time when the fight against the coronavirus is underway and the FAC is declaring a unilateral ceasefire, responding to the appeal of the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres.
"The warmongering and aggressive policy of the Angolan government threatens the security of the two Congos, neighbors of Cabinda," a territory that, according to the FAC, has been "invaded, assaulted and occupied militarily by Angola since 1975.
FLEC-FAC ends by calling on the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, the Southern African Development Community and the governments of the two Congos "to find a peaceful solution to the military conflict between Angola and Cabinda.
FLEC, through its 'armed arm', the FAC, fights for independence in the territory claiming that the enclave was a Portuguese protectorate, as established in the Treaty of Simulambuco, signed in 1885, and not part of the Angolan territory.
Created in 1963, the independence organisation was divided and multiplied into different, ephemeral factions, with the FLEC/FAC remaining the only movement claiming to maintain an 'armed resistance' against the Luanda administration.
More than half of Angola's oil comes from this province.
