South African forces intensified their operations in the Kavango region in late 1984. This was a continuation of an offensive launched in 1982 and aimed at suppressing support for SWAPO in the region. The action has been marked throughout by torture of detainees and abuse of the local population.
In the face of continuing armed attacks by SWAPO's army, PLAN, the military conducts a propaganda war involving regular reports of SWAPO casualties. Many of those killed may well not be PLAN fighters, but civilians. This was indicated by the Commander of SWATF in a speech at Tsumeb in September when he claimed, without providing evidence, that such people were PLAN fighters in civilian dress: 'In an attempt to curb losses, the major part of the terrorist component are deployed in civilian clothing among the people, but the security forces are still succeeding in identifying and eliminating these elusive terrorists.' On 17 October SWATF claimed to have killed 520 PLAN fighters during 1984, 55 of them in the Kavango region.
Providing the background to these claims was the continuing success of SWAPO's attacks on strategic targets. On 19 September the Windhoek to Okahandja railway line was sabotaged at Brakwater, 30 kilometres from the capital. This railway is the main supply route providing troops in the north. In another publicised incident, at the beginning of October, explosives damaged the main water supply pipeline to Oshigambo, in Ovambo.
