Angola riots: 22 dead and cities in chaos
The strike launched on Monday, July 28, by taxi drivers against rising fuel prices degenerated into clashes between protesters and police. Three days of riots ensued, with deaths and looting, notes “O País.” The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for an investigation into the police crackdown.
The Luanda-based daily O País features a mosaic of photographs on the front page of its August 1st edition: looted shops, smashed windows, and vehicles engulfed in flames. Also featured is a series of portraits, presumably of victims of the unrest that has rocked Angola in recent days. “Riots and vandalism. This is the result of the strike…”, the newspaper headlines.
On Monday, July 28, Tuesday, July 29, and Wednesday, July 30, the country experienced an unprecedented wave of violence. A strike launched by taxi drivers protesting the reduction in government fuel subsidies snowballed into widespread demonstrations. These protests were not confined to the capital, Luanda, but spread throughout the interior of the country. According to official figures, at least 22 people died, including a police officer. Interior Minister Manuel Homem also reported approximately 200 injured and more than 1,200 arrests.
“Caop B [on the outskirts of Luanda] is one of the neighborhoods where people died after police intervention during the three-day taxi strike: among them, a mother of six children and her 14-year-old son, whom she was trying to protect from gunfire. According to witnesses, bullets were fired at close range and hit people unrelated to the vandalism that was taking place in the neighborhood, and some denounce excessive use of force,” writes O País .
A semblance of a return to normal was observed on Thursday, July 31. On the same day, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an investigation. The police are suspected of using excessive force, possibly through live ammunition and tear gas.
In another article , the newspaper adds: “This wave of violence […] tarnishes Angola’s international image, say representatives of civil society. According to them, the ‘police repression’, the number of deaths and the cities in chaos in several provinces testify to an Angolan state incapable of ensuring security, maintaining dialogue with its population and respecting human rights.”
Courrier International
