CABINDA, Angola — The Angolan armed forces are surging through this remote province to end a rebellion that has threatened a U.S. petroleum giant operating here and could vex President Bush's plans to reduce America's need for Middle East oil.
And as Angola escalates what had been a low-intensity conflict, civilians are being caught in the cross-fire.
This African nation of 10.5 million emerged from 27 years of civil war last year after troops killed Jonas Savimbi, rebel leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA. In its haste to consolidate power and to control oil resources, the government has moved more than 10,000 soldiers -- including many former UNITA fighters who recently joined the armed forces -- into this northern province to destroy a guerrilla movement called the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda.
Most of the front's 2,000 guerrillas have fled, some into hiding in this provincial capital and others to rural villages or the wilderness along the borders of Congo and the smaller Republic of Congo.
Witnesses in rural villages say the military has killed, detained and tortured civilians to intimidate the populace and flush out rebels belonging to FLEC, as the front is called.
A United Nations "needs assessment" in January found a disturbing trend over the last few months of rapes committed by soldiers, according to officials at the world body.
The army also has forced Cabindans from their homes, leaving many villages deserted or garrisoned by troops, according to U.N. officials and witnesses. One U.N. official estimated that 45,000 villagers have fled into the jungle or into neighboring countries.
Separated from the Angolan mainland by a strip of the larger Congo's savanna and the Congo River, this pistol-shaped enclave of 150,000 people has one of the world's major petroleum reserves, producing two-thirds of Angola's oil.
Cabinda is particularly important to Angola because the oil industry is the only economic sector that survived the civil war, accounting for 90% of this nation's export revenue. During that long conflict, petrodollars enabled the government to spend a third of the gross domestic product on defense.
