22 killed in Angola fuel hike unrest
It was some of the worst unrest in several years in the Portuguese-speaking southern African country, which has been governed by the MPLA party since 1975. Sporadic gunfire was heard across Luanda and several other cities on Monday and Tuesday as people looted shops and clashed with police.
'We regret 22 deaths, including one police officer,' Interior Minister Manuel Homem told reporters on the sidelines of a Council of Ministers meeting chaired by President Joao Lourenco.
Nearly 200 people were injured in the violence, he said, and more than 1,200 people had been arrested. The unrest was marked by massive looting in which people raided supermarkets and warehouses, making off with food and other supplies. Sixty-six shops were damaged, Homem said. The streets of Luanda were tense and largely empty Wednesday, although there were some queues outside petrol stations and shops, AFP reporters said. There was a heavy presence of security forces.
Many shops remained closed, but public transport had slowly resumed in some areas after a two-day standstill. With the protests having spread outside the capital, a statement after the ministers' meeting said vandalism and rioting had 'triggered a climate of widespread insecurity'.
It said 'elements with criminal intentions' had turned the demonstration into a 'threat to security'. Police in the southern city of Lubango confirmed separately that a police officer had shot and killed a 16-year-old on Tuesday. The teenager was part of a group attempting to invade the headquarters of the ruling MPLA party, a statement said.
The strike was the latest in a series of protests this month after the price of fuel was hiked from 300 to 400 kwanzas ($0.33 to $0.43) a liter on July 1. The government's move to lower its heavy fuel subsidies reportedly followed International Monetary Fund calls for more public money for health and education. But it has angered many in the country of 36 million people, already under pressure from inflation of around 20 percent while nearly 30 percent are unemployed.
High inflation and limited growth 'are likely to keep poverty rates high, around 36 percent by 2026, underscoring the need for a stronger social safety net and more development spending', according to the World Bank. At a demonstration of around 2,000 people in Luanda on Saturday, protesters condemned the fuel price hike but also brandished signs denouncing MPLA 'corruption' or discontent with the rule of Lourenco, who was re-elected for a second five-year term in 2022. There had been similar protests the two previous weekends.
In a joint statement Wednesday, the opposition UNITA and Bloco Democratico parties said Angola was in a 'severe economic and social crisis' that was a result of government policies 'disconnected from the country's reality'. Amnesty International and other rights groups have accused the police of using excessive force against protesters in Angola, which suffered through a 1975-2002 civil war and almost four decades of repression under former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. - AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
8 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Hezbollah rejects cabinet's decision to disarm it
BEIRUT: Hezbollah said Wednesday it would treat a Lebanese government decision to disarm the militant group 'as if it did not exist', accusing the cabinet of committing a 'grave sin'. Amid heavy US pressure and fears Zionist entity could expand its strikes on Lebanon, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Tuesday that the government had tasked the army with developing a plan to restrict weapons to government forces by year end. The plan is to be presented to the government by the end of August for discussion and approval, and another cabinet session has been scheduled for Thursday to continue the talks, including on a US-proposed timetable for disarmament. Hezbollah said the government had 'committed a grave sin by taking the decision to disarm Lebanon of its weapons to resist the Zionist enemy'. The decision on the thorny issue is unprecedented since Lebanon's civil war factions gave up their weapons three and a half decades ago. 'This decision undermines Lebanon's sovereignty and gives (Zionist entity) a free hand to tamper with its security, geography, politics and future existence... Therefore, we will treat this decision as if it does not exist,' the Iran-backed group said in a statement. BAABDA: Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (center) chairs a cabinet session to discuss the issue of disarming Hezbollah at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. – AFP 'Serves Zionist interests' The government said its decision came as part of implementing a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Zionists and Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war. Hezbollah said it viewed the government's move as 'the result of dictates from US envoy' Tom Barrack. It 'fully serves Zionist interests and leaves Lebanon exposed to the Zionist enemy without any deterrence', the group said. Hezbollah was the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. It emerged weakened politically and militarily from its latest conflict with Zionist entity, its arsenal pummeled and its senior leadership decimated. Zionist entity has kept up its strikes on Hezbollah and other targets despite the November truce, and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed. The group said Zionist entity must halt those strikes before any domestic debate about its weapons and a new defense strategy can begin. 'Pivotal moment' 'We are open to dialogue, ending the Zionist aggression against Lebanon, liberating its land, releasing prisoners, working to build the state, and rebuilding what was destroyed by the brutal aggression,' the group said. Hezbollah is 'prepared to discuss a national security strategy', but not under Zionist fire, it added. Two ministers affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement walked out of Tuesday's meeting. Hezbollah described the walkout as 'an expression of rejection' of the government's 'decision to subject Lebanon to American tutelage and (Zionist) occupation'. The Amal movement, headed by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, accused the government of 'rushing to offer more gratuitous concessions' to Zionist entity when it should have sought to end the ongoing attacks. It called Thursday's cabinet meeting 'an opportunity for correction'. Hezbollah opponent the Lebanese Forces, one of the country's two main Christian parties, said the cabinet's decision to disarm the militant group was 'a pivotal moment in Lebanon's modern history - a long-overdue step toward restoring full state authority and sovereignty'. The Kataeb, another Christian party, called the cabinet's move 'historic' and warned against 'any attempt to deal with the decision negatively'. It accused the Hezbollah leader of being in denial and 'trying to drag the country into a confrontation that Lebanese reject'. - AFP
Kuwait Times
8 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
M23 killed ‘319 civilians' in DR Congo in July: UN
DOHA: Qatar's chief negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi (center) stands between peace mediator Sumbu Sita Mambu, a high representative of the head of state in the Democratic Republic of Congo (seated-left) and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimp (right) as they sign a ceasefire deal in Doha on July 19, 2025.-- AFP GENEVA: UN rights chief Volker Turk on Wednesday denounced the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, which he said had killed at least 319 civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in July. With Rwanda's support the M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich Congolese east from the DRC's army since its resurgence in 2021, triggering a spiraling humanitarian crisis in a region already riven by three decades of conflict. July's violence came only weeks after the Congolese government and the M23 signed a declaration of principle on June 19 reaffirming their commitment to a permanent ceasefire, following months of broken truces. 'I am appalled by the attacks on civilians by the M23 and other armed groups in eastern DRC amid continued fighting, despite the ceasefire that was recently signed in Doha,' Turk said in a statement. 'All attacks against civilians must stop immediately, and all those responsible must be held to account,' he added. Turk's UN Human Rights Office said it had documented multiple attacks in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, in the conflict-ridden east of the country bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. In the agreement signed in Doha, the warring parties agreed to 'uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire', refraining from 'hate propaganda' and 'any attempt to seize by force new positions'. The deal includes a roadmap for restoring state authority in eastern DRC, and an agreement for the two sides to open direct talks toward a comprehensive peace agreement. It followed a separate agreement signed in Washington by the Congolese government and Rwanda, which has a history of intervention in the eastern DRC stretching back to the 1990s. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to meet in the coming months to firm up the Washington agreement, whose terms have not yet been implemented. 'I urge the signatories and facilitators of both the Doha and Washington agreements to ensure that they rapidly translate into safety, security and real progress for civilians in the DRC, who continue to endure the devastating consequences of these conflicts,' said Turk. - AFP
Kuwait Times
20 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Trump targets tariff evasion, with eye on China
WASHINGTON: As the United States ramps up tariffs on major trading partners globally, President Donald Trump is also disrupting strategies that could be used—by Chinese companies or others—to circumvent them. Goods deemed to be 'transshipped,' or sent through a third country with lower export levies, will face an additional 40-percent duty under an incoming wave of Trump tariffs Thursday. The latest tranche of 'reciprocal' tariff hikes, taking aim at what Washington deems unfair trade practices, impacts dozens of economies from Taiwan to India. The transshipment rule does not name countries, but is expected to impact China significantly given its position as a manufacturing powerhouse. Washington likely wants to develop supply chains that are less reliant on China, analysts say, as tensions simmer between the world's two biggest economies and the US sounds the alarm on Beijing's excess industrial capacity. But 'it's a little more about the short-term effect of strengthening the tariff regime than it is about a decoupling strategy,' said Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. 'The point is to make countries worried about it and then have them err on the side of not doing it, because they know that Trump could then jack up the tariff rates higher again,' he added, referring to tariff evasion. The possibility of a sharply higher duty is a 'perpetual stick in the negotiations' with countries, said Richard Stern, a tax and budget expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He told AFP that expanding penalties across the globe takes the focus away from Beijing alone. Experts have noted that Vietnam was the biggest winner from supply chain diversions from China since the first Trump tariffs around 2018, when Washington and Beijing engaged in a trade war. And Brookings Institution senior fellow Robin Brooks pointed to signs this year of significant transshipments of Chinese goods. He noted in a June report that Chinese exports to certain Southeast Asian countries started surging 'anomalously' in early 2025 as Trump threatened widespread levies. While it is unclear if all these products end up in the United States, Brooks cast doubt on the likelihood that domestic demand in countries like Thailand and Vietnam rocketed right when Trump imposed duties. 'One purpose of the transshipment provisions is to force the development of supply chains that exclude Chinese inputs,' said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The other purpose is to push back on Chinese overcapacity and force them to eat their own surpluses,' he added. But Washington's success in the latter goal depends on its ability to get other countries on board. 'The transshipment penalties are designed to encourage that,' Reinsch said. Lipsky added: 'The strategy that worked in the first Trump term, to try to offshore some Chinese manufacturing to other countries like Vietnam and Mexico, is going to be a much more difficult strategy to execute now.' Lipsky noted that Beijing could see the transshipment clause as one targeting China on trade, 'because it is.' 'The question is, how China takes that in the broader context of what had been a thawing relationship between the US and China over the past two months,' he added. While both countries temporarily lowered triple-digit tariffs on each other's exports, that truce expires August 12. The countries are in talks to potentially extend the de-escalation, although the final decision lies with Trump. It will be tough to draw a line defining product origins, analysts say. Customs fraud has been illegal for some time, but it remains unclear how Washington will view materials from China or elsewhere that have been significantly transformed. The burden lies with customs authorities to identify transshipment and assess the increased duties. 'That will be difficult, particularly in countries that have close relations with China and no particular incentive to help US Customs and Border Protection,' Reinsch added. – AFP
