Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Joao Lourenco on Monday denied “any tension” with his long-serving predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos, many of whose relatives and friends he has sacked from public office in a fight against corruption in the oil-rich southern African nation. In November, within three months …
Read More »Fuel shortage in oil-rich Angola tests new president
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola has suffered a week of fuel shortages, a bitter irony for one of Africa’s leading oil producers, and a hardship that some people blame on opponents of President Joao Lourenco. The majority of petrol stations in the capital Luanda have had long lines of motorists …
Read More »Angola opens market to fourth mobile provider
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola is to allow a fourth mobile operator to enter its profitable telecommunications sector in a move which could impact business interests linked to former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. “The government is to issue a tender for a fourth telecoms operator which will include land …
Read More »Angola’s new president picks apart the dos Santos empire
The start of the clean-up operation did not take long. Luanda, Angola | AFP | Within three months of taking control of Angola, President Joao Lourenco sacked his predecessor’s daughter as head of the state-run oil company and set about dismantling the empire built by Jose Eduardo dos Santos. A presidential …
Read More »ANALYSIS: How president Lourenco is stamping his authority on Angola
Luanda, Angola | NEWS ANALYSIS | On 15 November, as most of southern Africa’s attentions turned to the military takeover ensuing in Zimbabwe, Angola’s President João Lourenço took a set of dramatic steps. Acting with lightning speed, he fired the entire board of Angola’s state oil company Sonangol, including its chair Isabel dos Santos. Later that day, …
Read More »Daughter of Angola’s ex-president sacked as state oil chief
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Joao Lourenco on Wednesday fired his predecessor’s daughter from her influential post as head of the Sonangol state oil company, the presidency said in a statement. Her appointment to the oil giant last year was widely criticised as a symbol of the nepotism …
Read More »Angola’s new leader vows to revive moribund economy
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angola’s new president unveiled a programme of corporate tax sweeteners on Monday intended to boost foreign investment and ease the oil-rich country’s dependence on the lacklustre price of crude. “We expect to adopt tax incentives for businesses that invest in the country,” President Joao Lourenco said …
Read More »Seven killed in Angola plane crash
Luanda, Angola | AFP | All seven passengers and crew were killed when a plane bound for the Angolan capital Luanda crashed in a remote corner of the country, emergency services said Friday. The Brazilian-built Embraer aircraft operated by Air Guicango crashed on Thursday after taking off from Dundo in …
Read More »Quarter of DRCongo refugees in Angola ‘have gone home’
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 …
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