Angola

The leadership contest for the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola is widely seen as an empty affair since the ambitious Abel Chivukuvuku decided not to...

The Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola may take its time over deciding who it wants as the next president and when elections will take place but it...

On 29 November, Angola enacted a law forcing foreign oil companies to use the local banking system for their financial transactions, rather than hold their accounts offshore.

Both politicians and electors are distinctly sceptical about President José Eduardo dos Santos’s announcement that the next elections will take place in the third quarter of 2012. There...

The barons of the governing Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola are divided over the succession. President José Eduardo dos Santos stands aloof from the jockeying for position...

Luanda appears willing to forget its past strong support for Côte d’Ivoire’s then President, Laurent Gbagbo, and reconcile with his successor, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, but there is much...

When Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf visited Luanda in September, Angola asked her to help mend fences with Ivorian President Alassane Dramane Ouattara (ADO), say Abidjan sources. Angolan...

Luanda’s rumour mill has gone into overdrive after the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola and the privately-owned Novo Jornal suggested that President José Eduardo dos Santos...

Relations between Luanda and Kinshasa could deteriorate sharply after a series of disputes. Angolan border police expelled about 15,000 Congolese in April and May after rounding them up...

Luanda’s secretive government has set up a task force to overhaul its communications strategy before next year’s parliamentary elections. The grandly titled Grupo de Revitalização e Execução da...

The latest twist in the long dispute between Angola and Congo-Kinshasa came with the arrest in Kinshasa of Cabindan human rights activist Agostinho Chicaia in late June. Tension...

The buzz word is ‘opacity’. Elections are due by the end of 2012 but no one is certain who is standing. Angola has one of the strongest economies...

Taboo for years, the question of who will succeed President José Eduardo dos Santos has finally come into the open. The Spokesman for the ruling Movimento Popular de...

A peaceful end to Luanda’s diplomatic dispute with the United States is in sight. US banks had closed Luanda’s bank accounts and Angola retaliated by detaining a ship...

The Angolan government detained the United States-flagged Maersk Constellation container ship at the port of Lobito between 28 February and 17 March. This was in retaliation for the...

The opposition’s attempts to bring the spirit of North Africa’s democracy wave failed to bring the masses on to the streets of Luanda but still worried a government...

On 24 February in Luanda, Manuel Vicente, head of the highly secretive state-owned oil company Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola and a possible successor to President José Eduardo dos...

Transparency has not been a major feature of China Sonangol’s and China International Fund’s activities in Africa, but one of the investment vehicles is now embarking on a human-resources drive...

The ownership and control of the multi-billion-dollar China Sonangol joint venture continue to baffle business people in Luanda. Ask officials from Beijing about China Sonangol and the response...

China Sonangol and its subsidiaries continue to make Angolan acquisitions. In February, China Sonangol won three deep-water pre-salt oil (equity) concessions in Blocks 19, 20 and 38, adding...

Angola is the largest African supplier – and the second-largest worldwide – of crude to China. To mark the importance of this relationship, on 15 April, Vicente received...