{{Angolan troops have crossed into neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville and taken a number of the country’s soldiers hostage, a senior Congolese officer said on Thursday.}}<\/p>\n
The Angolan soldiers entered Congo’s southwestern Kimongo district from the Angolan enclave of Cabinda on Sunday, Colonel Christian Sansa, a senior commander with Congo’s gendarmes deployed in the area, told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey claim they are in their own country\u2019s territory. We think it\u2019s a problem of their unfamiliarity with the borders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sansa said Congo-Brazzaville (also known as the Republic of Congo) had deployed soldiers to the area after learning of the incursion but they were quickly subdued by the Angolan forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur soldiers were surrounded by the Angolan soldiers, and as we speak there has been no change in that situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
{{Rebels}}<\/p>\n
The Angolan troops were pursuing rebels belonging to the separatist group the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave (FLEC) when they crossed into Congolese territory, local journalist Hermann Bouess told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong the arrested soldiers, there are a colonel and a captain,\u201d added Bouess.<\/p>\n
French broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported that as many as 40 Congolese soldiers had been detained by the Angolans. Citing anonymous local sources, RFI said Angolan troops were controlling five positions in the area.<\/p>\n
Angola\u2019s ambassador in the Congolese capital Brazzaville told journalists on Thursday that he was still seeking information on what, if anything, had happened along the border, but denied that Angolan soldiers had detained Congolese personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not true. It\u2019s false. But you know that at any border there is always friction either among the population or with the services charged with monitoring the border,\u201d said the ambassador, Fernando Pedro Mavunza.<\/p>\n
The incident highlights tensions around Angola\u2019s Cabinda province, which is separated from the rest of Angola and surrounded by Congo-Brazzaville and Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n
Though small, Cabinda accounts for much of Angola\u2019s oil production, which makes the country the second largest exporter in Africa. The FLEC and other separatist rebel movements have fought Angolan troops since independence in 1975.<\/p>\n
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{{Angolan troops have crossed into neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville and taken a number of the country’s soldiers hostage, a senior Congolese officer said on Thursday.}} The Angolan soldiers entered Congo’s southwestern Kimongo district from the Angolan enclave of Cabinda on Sunday, Colonel Christian Sansa, a senior commander with Congo’s gendarmes deployed in the area, told reporters. \u201cThey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000048876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-11019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000048876,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11019.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11019.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11019.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000048876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11019"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=11019"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=11019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}