Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan presidential candidate Joao Lourenco, who appears set to win next month’s election, launched his campaign on Tuesday with a speech vowing to tackle corruption and spread wealth. Defence minister Lourenco, 63, is the chosen successor of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, whose decision to …
Read More »Angola adopts law limiting power of future presidents
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s parliament passed a law on Friday that will drastically limit the powers of the country’s future presidents in matters of security and defence. The law will only apply to successors of the current head of state, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has enjoyed …
Read More »Angola rejects EU poll observers’ demands
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola has rejected conditions demanded by an EU election observer mission that had been preparing to witness next month’s polls in the country, state media reported Monday. The European team had called for unfettered access to polling stations across the vast southern African nation during the …
Read More »Angola leader back in Spain for ‘visit’ as health rumours swirl
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos returned to Spain on Monday for a “private visit”, officials said, five weeks after a monthlong trip to the country when he underwent medical tests. Dos Santos, 74, has been dogged by reports of poor health, with his daughter Isabel …
Read More »Angola’s Luanda pips Hong Kong as costliest city
Paris, France | AFP | Angola’s capital Luanda has overtaken Hong Kong to become the costliest city in the world for expats, Mercer’s annual survey said Wednesday. Dethroned last year by the Chinese city, Luanda regained the dubious honour despite the depreciation of the local kwanza currency against the dollar, …
Read More »Angola prepares ‘golden’ retirement for president Dos Santos
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s government is preparing a golden parachute for the country’s president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, complete with first-class air travel and a chauffeur-driven car. And after 38 years in power, he will retire on a pension not far short of his current salary. A bill …
Read More »Police blamed as Angola probes deadly football stampede
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola announced an investigation Saturday into a stadium stampede that killed at least 17 and injured scores, as the nation’s president, the host team and witnesses blamed the deaths on police error. Children were among the victims in what has been described as the country’s …
Read More »Ex-general Lourenco poised to be Angola’s next leader
Luanda, Angola | AFP | The likely next president of Angola, Joao Lourenco, is a ruling party loyalist and former general who endured several years out of favour after he angled for the top job in the 1990s. Since then, the 62-year-old Lourenco has convinced key regime players and analysts …
Read More »Dos Santos: Angola’s secretive leader heads towards exit
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s announcement Friday that he will step down brings to an end a 37-year reign marked by an unrelenting authoritarian style. Though seldom seen in public, he has been a looming presence in daily life for as long as most …
Read More »Angola President Dos Santos to step down after 37 years
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Veteran Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos announced Friday he will not run in August elections, signalling the end to 37 years in power and naming his defence minister as the candidate to succeed him. The autocratic 74-year-old has been the oil-rich country’s president since …
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