Cabinda separatists attack Angola

A separatist rebel group in north west Angola is reported to have said that it killed 12 government soldiers in two clashes on Thursday in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave.

The Portuguese news agency, Lusa, quoted a statement from the FLEC-FAC group as saying that five separatist fighters were wounded in the fighting.

Correspondents say the report comes after months of relative quiet in the Cabinda region, which is separated from the rest of Angola by a strip of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The group's armed forces chief, Francisco Luemba, is reported to have signed the statement, which said the first clash took place in the Buco Zau military region and a second in the Belize military region.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service