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Angola

Events of 2024

Thousands of people attend the march "For a Hunger-Free Angola," in a protest called by the opposition parties that make up the United Patriotic Front (FPU) in Luanda, Angola, November 23, 2024.

© 2024 AMPE ROGERIO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Throughout 2024, Angolan police were credibly implicated in killings, sexual violence, excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and torture and other ill-treatment of activists and protesters. Children continued to face the consequences of a drought and food crisis, with 38 percent of children in the country suffering from chronic malnutrition. President João Lourenço signed laws that fail to meet international human rights standards and severely restrict freedoms of the media, expression, and association. Angolan prisons continued to experience overcrowding.

Police Brutality

Detainees accused police of carrying out extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, torture and other ill-treatment, and use of excessive force during arrests. In Lunda Norte province, police in March used live bullets to disperse a crowd of people who were protesting the alleged police killing of an artisanal diamond miner.

Angola’s association of street vendors accused police of sexual assault, beatings, harassment, and illegal seizure of property of women street vendors across the country.

Police officers reportedly tortured six people in Luanda, Bié, and Lunda Sul provinces between April and June, to coerce confessions to crimes, according to a report by the local Mudei Movement.

In September, the police minister, Eugénio Laborinho, acknowledgedthat police officers on duty “regrettably make mistakes, some of which culminate in the loss of human life." He added that about 78 officers were expelled from the national police for misconduct between January 2023 and mid-2024.

Children’s Rights

Children continued to face the consequences of a worsening drought and food crisis, with 38 percent of the children suffering from chronic malnutrition. The country is one of the most affected by a major food crisis affecting Central and Southern Africa, according to the World Food Programme. As of May, 1.5 million people, including thousands of children from the lowest income farming-dependent households, faced acute food insecurity in southern Angola. At least 22 children reportedly died from acute malnutrition.

In early 2024, Namibian authorities repatriated Angolans, including dozens of children—many unaccompanied—who were found begging or selling wooden artifacts in Namibia’s cities and towns. Many of the children are from drought affected areas of Angola’s southern Cunene, Huila, and Namibe provinces. They had fled the region and crossed the border to Namibia in search of food and jobs.

In May, health authorities said they were investigating the reported death in Luanda of more than 30 children under 12, who had symptoms such as stomach pain and fever, after consuming “very cloudy, yellowish water” that came out of taps in the Viana neighborhood. As of late November, authorities had not publicly presented the outcome of their investigation.

Dozens of children’s foster homes in Malange province faced the risk of closure as the country struggles to recover from an economic crisis.

In its 2024 State Budget, the Angolan government reduced by 50 percent financial resources for the SOS Criança helpline, the only national helpline for children to call in cases of violence, abuse or neglect or to obtain information and referrals, according to UNICEF.

Freedom of the Media, Expression and Association

On August 29, President Lourenco signed two laws that fail to meet international human rights standards and severely restrict freedoms of the media, expression, and association.

The new law on the Crimes of Vandalism of Public Goods and Services provides prison terms of up to 25 years for people who participate in protests that result in vandalism and service disruptions. The new National Security law authorizes government security forces to prohibit public or private radio stations from broadcasting and to disrupt some telecommunication services under “exceptional circumstances” without a court order, which would seriously curtail media freedom.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, had urged Angola’s government and National Assembly not to adopt legislation that could be used limit basic rights.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the bill could “severely undermine press freedom, further exposing journalists to harassment, intimidation, and censorship by authorities.”

Crackdown on Peaceful Protests

Angolan police arbitrarily detained peaceful activists and protesters throughout the year. Some of the detainees were later released without charge, while others were acquitted in court for lack of evidence.

In April, a court in Luanda acquitted33 pastors and workers of the Pentecostal Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) who were detained during a peaceful protest against the new leadership of the church. State prosecutors charged the group with disturbing a religious gathering, participating in a riot, disobeying police instructions, and offenses to physical integrity. The judge ruled that he found no evidence for the crimes.

In June, authorities released without charges, 11 activists arrested by police during a peaceful protest against government policies, which in their opinion were “impoverishing Angolans.” The group also called for the release of political prisoners.     

Authorities detained and later released after several hours without charge dozens of activists and protesters who peacefully demonstrated against the new vandalism law in August. The police also detained journalists who covered the protests and seized their work equipment.

Poor Prison Conditions

Angolan prisons continued to experience overcrowding. The 43 prison units across the country have capacity for 22,554 inmates. The current prison population stands at 24,068 prisoners, half of them in preventive or pre-trial detention.  The national director for human rights, Yannick Bernardo has blamed excessive cases of preventive detention as the main cause of the overcrowding.

Authorities struggled to implement alternatives to prison time, introduced with the new penal code of 2020, including community service and house arrests.

Prison authorities reportedly committed abuses against four jailed activists who were convicted and sentenced, together with three others, by a Luanda court in September 2023 for “insulting the president” following their arrest just three days before, ahead of a planned protest.  Amnesty International accused Angolan authorities of the deliberate denial of medical care to the activists, including urgent surgery, which may amount to torture or other ill-treatment.