Authorities forcibly broke up separatist demonstration. Security forces 10 Dec violently dispersed peaceful pro-independence march in Cabinda exclave in west; police arrested dozens including president and sec gen of Cabinda Independence Movement (MIC), which seeks independence for exclave. In protest, armed separatist movement Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) mid-Dec called for large-scale demonstrations. Supreme Court 9 Dec opened trial of former President dos Santos’s son Jose Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos, charged with embezzling $500mn from Angola’s sovereign wealth fund. Court 23 Dec froze bank accounts and holdings of Isobel Dos Santos, daughter of former President dos Santos, and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo over state losses of more than a billion dollars.
One year after more than four decades of internationally fuelled civil conflict came to an end, Angola is faced with a stark choice.
Emerging slowly from decades of civil war, Angola stands at a crossroads between a spectacular recovery or further cycles of instability and crisis. The government that won the fighting must now move on a number of fronts – with international support – to win the peace.
[Recent political events in Angola] may have been choreographed to give the impression that things are changing and that there’s a new broom. It’s possible that much of this is theater.
Originally published in Mail and Guardian
Originally published in PeaceWomen
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