UNITA president Adalberto Costa Júnior today called the Angolan government’s statement about his party holding an event in a landmine risk zone in eastern Angola “shameful.”
“I am very happy, because we went and returned [from Muangai] without incident,” said the president of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition party), thanking the population of the region where UNITA was founded 60 years ago.
At a political rally in Luena, capital of Moxico province, one day after visiting Muangai, Costa Júnior criticised the Moxico provincial government’s statement, saying it contained “lies and threats.”
“The note was accompanied by a series of lies and threats. I am only talking about a visit to the founding location of a political party in 2026. The provincial government’s note threatened the party’s municipal secretary who, according to the statement, was removing mines with his bare hands,” he said.
Before party members and supporters gathered for the UNITA 60th anniversary commemoration, the politician described the government statement as “shameful.” “Our rival went there — did you hear about any mines on the road? No. So why this intolerance? Our people were there defending us throughout the entire journey, because that statement was shameful,” he said.
The Moxico provincial government had distanced itself on Friday from any incident that might occur in the landmine risk zone where UNITA “insisted on holding an activity” despite official warnings, expressing “great concern” that the party had scheduled an event in Muangai, “not declared free of landmines.”
Read more about this topic: Angola’s government criticises UNITA for scheduling activity in landmine risk zone
UNITA nonetheless held the event, with half the route taken along a bush track — where, as Costa Júnior stressed, local people lined the way to protect and watch over the convoy throughout the journey.
In Muangai, UNITA paid tribute to Jonas Savimbi — the party’s founding leader — and other participants in the founding congress of March 13, 1966. Today, the founders were again honoured and spoke at the political rally, recounting the purposes behind UNITA’s founding.
