For the people of Cabinda, the situation has worsened again. Afonso Zao, Lieutenant-General of the FLEC-FAC, the forces that continue to fight for the independence of the people of Cabinda, tells PLATAFORMA that “there has been more fighting in recent days”.
It counts at least “two fatalities among FLEC-FAC guerrillas”, as for the Angolan military, it is limited to saying: “the bodies were left there”.
Assuming he is speaking from Cabinda’s “Liberated Zone”, Afonso Zao places the fighting in a “region very close to the border with the DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo”, accusing the Angolan armed forces of violating that border “ entering Congolese territory, in the persecution of FLEC’s men ”. The media on the DRC side echo these incursions that are being politically debated. The theme will have been analyzed in one of the recent meetings of the Council of Ministers, where one of these incursions made by the Angolan army, in the Lukula region, was discussed. At that ministerial meeting, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo decided to report this violation to sub-regional organizations (SADC), without prejudice to negotiations with Angola on the issue.
Another of the Lieutenant General’s main concerns, Afonso Zao, concerns the refugee situation. Using the information that was being given to him by an element just arrived from the city of Cabinda, Afonso Zao says that “they are abandoned, with no minimum conditions of subsistence, not even having documents”. Support – so far provided by the United Nations – is not arriving and therefore it is urgent to try to help the more than 1,000 refugees facing this situation. “They are without food or medicine, they are abandoned”, underline the representatives of FLEC-FAC.
In addition to the situation of refugees, FLEC also denounces what it calls “persecution of supporters of the Cabinda cause”, who are not free to express their opinions. “If they are civil servants, they are immediately exonerated.”In recent statements, the Governor of Cabinda Province, Marcos Nhunga, said that “FLEC is not a concern, adding that“ if they had actually killed military personnel who show, or send photos ”to prove it. As the slang says, “kill the snake and show the stick”. In these declarations to RFI, the Governor guarantees that “FLEC has no evident action in the Cabinda region. This is a pure lie. They do this to trick the international community ”.
FLEC, founded in the early 1960s and led for years by Nzita Tiago, the father of the current president, Emmanuel Nzita, has always fought for the independence of the Enclave of Cabinda, a region rich in oil, which is administered by the Angolan government.
Read Afonso Zao’s request for Portugal’s help
