Luanda, Angola | AFP | Nearly a fourth of the estimated 30,000 refugees sheltered in Angola’s northeast have returned to their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive Kasai region, an Angolan official said Friday. “Of the 31,240 refugees from DRC hosted by the Angolan government in the Lunda …
Read More »Angola swears in Lourenco, first new president for 38 years
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s 38-year reign over Angola finally came to an end Tuesday when his hand-picked successor Joao Lourenco was inaugurated as president at a ceremony in Luanda. Lourenco read an oath in which he vowed “on my honour to devote myself” to the …
Read More »Daunting challenges facing Angola’s new president
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s incoming president Joao Lourenco faces a slew of challenges that include dwindling oil prices, rampant poverty, soaring unemployment and the long shadow cast by his predecessor and his family. These are the key tasks that will confront him on his first day in the job …
Read More »Angola’s Dos Santos: a family business
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Critics of outgoing Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos accuse him of stripping his country of much of its vast oil wealth to enrich himself and his family. Dos Santos, who will step down on Tuesday after 38 years of iron-fisted rule, has appointed several …
Read More »LOURENCO: Angola’s political Lazarus
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s new president, Joao Lourenco who will be sworn in Tuesday, is a former general who spent several years in the political wilderness after angling for the top job in the 1990s. Since then, Lourenco, 63, convinced key regime players he was the right man …
Read More »Angola’s UNITA drops parliament boycott threat over vote dispute
Luanda, Angola | AFP | The leading opposition party in Angola said Saturday its lawmakers would take their seats in parliament, withdrawing a threat to boycott the assembly to protest last month’s election outcome. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which won 27 percent of the vote, …
Read More »Angola court upholds government poll win
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s constitutional court on Wednesday upheld the ruling party’s landslide win in last month’s election which will usher in the MPLA’s fourth decade in power and rejected opposition claims the poll was flawed. The ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola won 61.7 percent …
Read More »Lessons for Uganda from Angola
ANALYSIS: Long serving Angola President retires to a quiet sunset. Can it happen in Uganda? Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Renowned Ugandan political researcher and analyst Frederick Golooba Mutebi (PhD) says there is no guarantee of a smooth transition from long-serving President Yoweri Museveni as happened recently in Angola where President José …
Read More »Angolan opposition parties file complaint on election result
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Three Angolan opposition parties on Friday filed a complaint against the outcome of nationwide elections on August 23 that asserted the 42-year grip of the ruling MPLA party. Representatives from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and two smaller parties, the …
Read More »Angola’s ruling MPLA wins election
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s Electoral Commission declared Wednesday that the ruling MPLA party had won last month’s election, in a victory that allows outgoing President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to install a party loyalist in his place after 38 years in power. The Popular Movement for the Liberation …
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