22 killed as police carry out revenge attack over colleague's death in Angola

According to police spokesman, Paulo Gaspar de Almeida, 13 of Kalupeteka's private guards had been killed because they were "snipers", who had opened fire, killing nine officers.

 

No fewer than 22 people have been killed in Angola after police reportedly carried out a massacre in revenge for the officers' deaths.

Police have however denied the report that some 200 members of a sect have been killed but they confirmed the 22 deaths, including nine officers.

BBC reports that the clashes occurred in central Huambo province when police raided a camp looking for sect leader Jose Julino Kalupeteka on 16th April.

According to police spokesman, Paulo Gaspar de Almeida in a chat with BBC's Focus on Africa programme, 13 of Kalupeteka's private guards had been killed because they were "snipers", who had opened fire, killing nine officers.

Kalupeteka, who formed his Seventh Day Light of the World church 14 years ago after being expelled from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, has thousands of followers across Angola.

The sect founder preaches that world will end in 2015, and urges the sect's followers to abandon all their belongings and go on seclusion in camps the mountains.

He is accused of inciting civil disorder and is now in police custody.

Meanwhile, Unita and human rights activists say that the Angolan army has now sealed off the area around Caala town even as police spokesman Almeida said that opposition parties were exaggerating the number of deaths for political reasons.