Angola Opposition Party Requests Report on President’s Health

Source: Bloomberg

Dos Santos’s daughter, Isabel, said on her Instagram account that reports that her father had died were fake and aimed at causing turmoil in Angolan politics. The 74-year-old Dos Santos, Africa’s second-longest serving ruler, traveled to Barcelona on May 1, Angola’s state-owned news agency Angop reported.

Dos Santos, in power since 1979, has said he won’t run as the ruling party’s candidate in elections this year. During his rule, Angola endured a civil war to emerge as a rival to Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer. Defense Minister Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco has been named the candidate for the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the vote scheduled to take place on Aug. 23.