SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs
ANGOLA: Row over Angola air crash
The rebel group UNITA and the Angolan Government have given conflicting
accounts of the cause of an aircraft crash on Tuesday, in which all 50
people on board were killed, reports said. UNITA rebels said they shot the
aircraft down, but the authorities said a technical fault in one of the
engines was the cause of the crash. The Russian-built Antonov-26 exploded in
mid-air after taking off from the town of Saurimo in the northeast. UNITA's
chief of staff, Major-General Geraldo Abreu was quoted as saying that rebel
troops had brought the Antonov-26 down because it was carrying a cargo of
diamonds. He added that the attack was a warning to all mercenaries in the
service of Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.
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