The wounded parents of three French children shot dead in an ambush in Namibia are so seriously injured that they have not been told their children are dead.
The youngsters were killed on Monday night when armed Angolan men, from either the government army or Unita rebel forces, ambushed vehicles carrying tourists and aid workers.
The ages of the dead children have been given as 10, 15 and 19.
Nurse Helena Ansino said from the Rundu State Hospital that the mother of the children was in shock and the father underwent an operation for his wounds. The couple were to be transferred to a hospital in Windhoek, Ansino said.
Two aid workers were wounded in a later ambush in the same area, about 40km east of the Bagani checkpoint on the fringes of the Caprivi game reserve near the Angolan border.
They were in two vehicles, transporting workers of the Danish aid agency Development Aid for People to People (DAPP).
The Danish consul in Windhoek, Carsten Norgaard, said the drivers of the two cars - a Namibian, Petrus Iyambo, and a Scot - were both shot in the legs but managed to drive on.
Speaking from a game lodge in Rundu, one of the aid workers said she had been travelling with 12 others from the group when they were fired on, but did not get a look at the attackers. She said she did not want to give her name because their parents did not yet know about the attack.
DAPP's Namibia director, Bjarne Resager, said from Windhoek that the group were travelling back from a holiday in Zimbabwe to Oshakati, in northern Namibia, where they worked on development projects. They were riding in a minibus and a pickup. Aged between 20 and 40, seven of the group were Namibians, the rest from various European countries, which Resager would not identify.
Namibian police spokesperson Angula Amulungu confirmed the ambushes yesterday and said a police team had been sent to the Omega area to investigate.
Reuters reports that the chief of staff of the Namibian Defence Force blamed Unita for the attack. "This is definitely a Unita ambush," Major-General Martin Shalli said in Windhoek, but declined to elaborate.
Sources at Andara, east of Rundu, also said the men were Unita rebels.
However, a Unita spokesperson denied that Unita was involved in the attack.
Meanwhile, speculation in north-eastern Namibia is that recent acts of terrorism were being perpetrated by disgruntled Angolan government forces who have not received their salaries for a long time.
The National Society for Human Rights said in a statement in Windhoek: "The NSHR strongly condemns what appears to be pre-planned and organised acts of banditry, including looting, robbery, mass killing and enforced disappearance perpetrated against civilians along the north-eastern border of Namibia."
The NSHR said the Namibian public and the international community were made to believe the arrival of Angolan government forces in north-eastern Namibia would enhance security and stability along the common border.
"However, immediately after the arrival of such forces, gross human rights abuses, reminiscent of those common in Angola, have increased considerably compared to the period prior to the arrival of the Angolan forces," the NSHR said.
Namibian authorities have repeatedly claimed that the situation in the northern areas has returned to "normal" after Unita rebels were flushed out by Angolan government forces.
The Namibian newspaper reported yesterday that suspected Unita rebels at the weekend attacked civilians at a shebeen, less than 10km from the military base at Bagani, with grenades and assault rifles. Eight people were wounded - four seriously - and 20 Namibians were abducted.
The rebels planted anti-personnel mines and landmines on their way back to Angola. Roaming Unita rebels have been targeting civilians since the Angolan government launched an assault on Unita positions along the Kavango river in southern Angola in November. - Foreign Service, Sapa and Reuters