Peter Biles reports on the collapse of the Lusaka accord

The Portuguese news agency Lusa says 31 people - many of them women and children - were killed and 36 wounded on Friday.

Angolan government military forces said nine civilians were killed when mortar fire hit a Roman Catholic church in the suburb of Cangoti.

Many of the residents of Kuito, a strategic road and rail junction in central Angola, have been taking refuge in shelters.

Angolan government radio said Kuito was almost unrecognisable following the bombardment.

Thousands of children are trapped by the fighting in Cuito

Unita (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) has laid siege to Kuito for the past two weeks.

Ironically many Angolan troops are currently fighting to defend the government of President Laurent Kabila in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fresh fighting

Renewed fighting in the area followed the collapse of a four-year-old peace treaty with the government collapsed.

The left-wing government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has accused Unita leader Jonas Savimbi of having reneged on the 1994 Lusaka peace accord by not disarming his forces.

The UN blames Unita leader Jonas Savimbi for the renewed violence

The Lusaka accord was intended to put an end to 20 years of civil war in the former Portuguese colony.

The United Nations Security Council has called for an immediate halt to the fighting in Angola and blamed Unita for "persistent violation of the obligations of the Lusaka peace accords".

The Security Council has also expressed concern at reported violations of an arms embargo and diamond trade restrictions on Unita.

Marjolaine Martin of the Red Cross is worried about the future

Earlier this week aid workers in Angola warned of a looming humanitarian disaster in the country as a result of the fighting in Bie province.

Influx of wounded

A spokeswoman for the Red Cross said Kuito faced an influx of refugees and wounded people and there was no means of bringing in medicine or food.

The fighting around Kuito has destroyed the harvest and left up to 100,000 refugees on the brink of starvation.

Many refugees are heading for food centres which have been established by international relief agencies in Huambo, 150km to the west.

The UN World Food Programme says many arrive malnourished and sick after walking long distances in the rain.