In a statement to the South African Parliament on 22 April, the Minister of Defence, Magnus Malan, warned that the South African government would have to consider carrying out military raids 'deeper into Angolan territory'. The threat, which tends to confirm the anxieties expressed earlier this year by the Angolan authorities at the substantial new build-up of South African military force in northern Namibia, was presented by Pretoria as a response to fresh incursions and attacks by SWAPO guerillas in Kaokoland, Ovambo and Kavango.
In communes issued during May, the Angolan authorities reported a marked escalation in South African reconnaissance flights over Angolan territory — 115 flights taking place during the first fortnight of May alone — into the provinces of Mocamedes, Huila, Kunene, Moxico and Kuando Kubango.
Just a few days after the fourth anniversary of the Kassinga raid and massacre of 4 May 1978, Kassinga itself was again attacked by South African aircraft which bombed the power station for the town's iron ore mines.
The Angolan authorities pointed out earlier this year that the port of Mocamedes, the main maritime outlet for the export of iron ore from the Kassinga mines, seemed to have been a particular target for South African reconnaissance flights.
The airport and railway station at Jamba, and the town of Cahama in Kunene province were among other targets of bombing raids during May. Cahama has been fiercely fought over in the past year and according to one Angolan newspaper, by mid-May 1982 nearly 3,000 bombs had been dropped on it. It is situated just north of the occupied zone of Kunene province. In the Mulondo district, the SA Air Force was reported to have used napalm, as they had previously done in August 1981.
