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Angola’s UNITA rebels replaced slain leader Jonas Savimbi with his second-in-command, Antonio Dembo, 57.
“The offensive continues with Antonio Dembo in charge,” said Rui Oliveira, UNITA’s spokesman in Portugal. He confirmed that UNITA gunmen killed nine people Monday in an ambush in rural Angola and said the civil war will continue, despite the army’s killing of Savimbi last week.
Analysts questioned Dembo’s political viability. “He will most probably be pushed aside by UNITA General Secretary Paulo Lukamba, a much stronger man, and the movement could splinter, creating a warlord situation,” said Hermann Hannekon of the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria.
