Children burnt to death in village raid

Two children were burnt to death after raiders, reported to be members of the Angolan rebel organisation UNITA, torched their village.

Two children were burnt to death after raiders, reported to be members of the Angolan rebel organisation UNITA, torched their village.

Residents in Shinyungwe, 208 miles east of Rundu, said the group raided a nearby shop and then the village, torching it as they fled. Two children died, and between six and 12 people were abducted.

A Namibian army patrol reached the scene a few hours later and detonated three landmines left behind by the raiders, killing one soldier and injuring two or three others, regional radio reports said. The Namibian Defense Force Headquarters in Windhoek neither denied nor confirmed the reports.

The raiders' tracks were followed to the Kavango river, which forms the border between northeastern Namibia and southern Angola.

Namibian President Sam Nujoma, late last year, allowed Angolan forces to attack UNITA from its soil. UNITA then said it would step up its guerilla attacks, and several have occurred during the past two months.

Fighting between the Angolan government and UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, began after the Southwest African country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.