NAMIBIA: UNITA KIDNAPS 16 CHILDREN

Unita rebels abducted 16 children attending mass in a Roman Catholic church in Angola's northern Kwanza Norte province, AFP reported last week. According to the report, Bishop Luis Escarpa told Radio Ecclesia that soldiers burst into the church at Kiluanji during mass on Sunday and made off with the girls and boys, mostly under 14 years old.

In May Unita soldiers abducted more than 50 orphans from a school in Caxito,
about 60 km north of Luanda. The children were freed a few days later and handed over to church authorities amid widespread alarm at rebel activity so
close to the coastal capital. The kidnappings, highlighted in the media because of the large number of children and Caxito's proximity to the capital, were not uncommon, aid workers in Angola said at the time. They said they received constant reports of children being kidnapped during raids on villages across the country. -- IRIN