Jan 11 (Reuters) - Angolan authorities say they have arrested two people on suspicion of taking part in an attack on a bus carrying the Togo national soccer team to the African Nations Cup in which two members of the delegation were killed.
It sais the suspects belonged to the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC). FLEC, which has being fighting for independence for Cabinda for more than three decades and has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Following are some facts about Cabinda, a highly militarised province that is the source of half Angola's oil exports:
HISTORY
Portuguese colonialists ruled Cabinda from 1885 until 1975, when Portugal gave up its overseas colonies following a left-wing revolution.
The independence treaty signed with Angola's main independence movements -- but not Cabinda's FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) -- incorporated Cabinda into Angola as a geographically separated exclave.
SECESSIONIST ASPIRATIONS
Cabinda's secessionists fought a low-level guerrilla war to throw off Angolan rule from 1975 until they were largely crushed as Angola's post-colonial civil war ended in 2002.
Violence has continued sporadically, despite a ceasefire signed by FLEC rebels in 2006 in return for pledges of a greater share of oil revenue. The deal was rejected by a faction of the FLEC led by its president, N'Zita Tiago.
CONTINUING VIOLENCE
Antonio Bento Bembe, a former FLEC fighter who is now a minister without portfolio, said in December that FLEC now consisted of only a few disaffected individuals.
Bento Bembe himself signed the 2006 ceasefire agreement as FLEC secretary general, but Tiago says he still leads a war against the government from exile in Paris.
In November, FLEC said it had kidnapped a Chinese oil worker. It had also earlier said it had killed several members of Angola's armed forces -- claims that Bento Bembe denied.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch last June accused the Angolan government of extensive unlawful detention and torture of people suspected of rebel activities in Cabinda.
OIL The waters off Cabinda have earned it the epithet "the Kuwait of Africa". They provide more than half of the 2 million barrels per day of oil produced by Angola, which rivals Nigeria as Africa's leading producer.
Oil accounts for around 90 percent of Angola's income from exports.
Since 2006, the central government has been reinvesting 10 percent of Cabinda's oil taxes in the province.
Chevron Corp <CVX.N>, one of Angola's top oil producers, pumps oil from the Cabinda region.
GEOGRAPHY
The kingdoms that make up modern-day Cabinda adjoined Angola until 1885, when the country that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo was given sovereignty over a 60-km wide strip of land surrounding the mouth of the River Congo. Cabinda covers 7,823 sq km (3,020 sq miles) and has a population of around 300,000 out of Angola's roughly 16.5 million.
It borders the Democratic Republic of Congo to the south and east and Congo Republic to the north. The provincial capital, also named Cabinda, is the main port on its Atlantic coastline.
Most Cabindans speak French rather than Portuguese, the dominant language of Angola, as well as the indigenous language Cabindes.
Sources: Reuters, GlobalSecurity.org