Police in western Angola have arrested a top officer in a government militia who is accused of carrying out several deadly ambushes on roads in the region, press reports said Tuesday.
Major Benjamin Chimbenje and two accomplices were arrested in the town of Benguela, the state Jornal de Angola said.
Chimbenje led other members of the pro-government Civil Defense militia in carrying out several ambushes on roads linking the key towns of Cubal, Ganda and Caimbambo to Benguela, looting and destroying goods trucks and killing their riders, the paper said.
"This network was operating under the cover of a legal activity: that of the Civil Defense. (Now) not long after the group has been dismantled, calm has returned to Cubal and the roads are once again safe. The number of night shootings has gone down," the Jornal de Angola said.
Chimbenje and his supporters are also accused of pillaging villages near to Cubal and carrying out a series of attacks on houses in the area.
"They killed those who were against them," the paper said.
The government has a number of armed militias operating in towns and villages across the country to back up police and army efforts to crush UNITA rebels.
The formerly Marxist ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has been fighting the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) off and on for 25 years.
Cubal, Ganda and Caimbambo towns have been worst hit by armed ambushes which until now have been blamed by the government on UNITA rebels -- LUANDA (AFP)
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