Latest news with #JoãoLourenço
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Angolan President Hints at Successor Who Can Do ‘Better Than Me'
Angolan President João Lourenço said he's looking for someone to succeed him at the helm of Africa's third-biggest oil producer, before general elections scheduled to take place in 2027. 'I think about it every day,' Lourenço said in a television interview late on Tuesday with CNN Portugal. 'I think in silence. It's my duty to think because we can't leave the country in the hands of just anyone.'
Zawya
4 days ago
- Politics
- Zawya
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Welcomes the Signing of Declaration of the Principles Between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Alliance Fleuve Congo / March 23 Movement (AFC/M23)
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, warmly welcomes the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Alliance Fleuve Congo / March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) today in Doha, Qatar. This significant development marks a major milestone in the ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace, security, and stability in eastern DRC and the wider Great Lakes region. He applauds the constructive role played by the United States Administration and the State of Qatar, and acknowledges the invaluable contributions of all stakeholders, including the regional facilitators from the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He extends special thanks to His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, for his continued dedication and positive engagement in advancing peace and stability across Africa. The Chairperson further commends the tireless efforts of the AU Champion for Peace and Reconciliation, H.E. João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola, and the AU-appointed Mediator, H.E. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, President of the Togolese Republic. He also salutes the spirit of dialogue, compromise, and political will demonstrated by the Governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda. This breakthrough offers renewed hope for regional cooperation and sustainable peace. The African Union remains fully committed to working with all stakeholders to support the successful implementation of the Peace Agreement and to contribute to sustainable peace, security, and development in the DRC and the region. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union (AU).
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Prince Harry Recreates Princess Diana's Landmine Walk in Angola
Prince Harry is visiting Angola with the Halo Trust, an organization that his mother, Princess Diana, supported during her lifetime. It's his second trip to the country; he first traveled to Angola in 2019 during his and Meghan Markle's tour of southern Africa. 'Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school. Here in Angola, over three decades later, the remnants of war still threaten lives every day. The Angolan government's continued commitment is a powerful testament to HALO's success in saving lives,' Prince Harry said today. He visited Africa's largest minefield with Halo Trust, located in Angola. 'The Halo Trust work in Angola meant a great deal to my mother,' the Duke of Sussex said in September in New York City. 'Carrying on her legacy is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously.' Like his mother, he walked through a minefield in Angola today. However, it was not the same one—the field where Diana walked in 1997 is now a paved road, where people are able to walk safely. Harry shared this past fall, 'Much has changed in my life and the world since 2019 when I first visited Huambo. In those five years, I've become a father for the second time. And while you don't need children to have a stake in the future of our planet, I do know that my mother would have been horrified that anyone's children or grandchildren would live in a world still infested with mines.' Yesterday, the Duke met with Angola's President João Lourenço to discuss the Halo Trust's work. 'It was an honour to have an audience with His Excellency President Lourenço today alongside Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to discuss HALO's continued demining efforts in Angola,' James Cowan, CEO of the Halo Trust said yesterday. 'We thanked him for his extraordinary dedication to and investment in the vision of a mine-free country, and he expressed his intention to continue to support our work with a further significant contract for the next three years. Our partnership is strengthened and renewed, and we are grateful to President Laurenço for his leadership on this critical issue.' You Might Also Like 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Prince Harry visits landmine charity in Angola
The Duke of Sussex has returned to Angola to continue his late mother's work in promoting landmine clearance. Prince Harry flew from his home in California to Luanda for a two-day visit that will see him walk through a cleared minefield and deliver a speech. It comes almost six years after the Duke returned to the spot where Diana, Princess of Wales, famously walked through an area strewn with mines. The area is now a street in the bustling town of Huambo, with schools, shops and houses. Residents call it Princess Diana Street. In January 1997, when the Princess visited, the nation was experiencing a brief period of peace following a two-decade civil war that had left the country contaminated by more than 15 million landmines. Today, more than 1,000 minefields, covering an estimated 25 square miles, are still to be cleared in Angola. The Duke has described how important it was to him to follow in his mother's footsteps. On Tuesday, the Duke met João Lourenço, the Angolan president, alongside James Cowan, the chief executive of the Halo Trust, securing a pledge for a 'significant' three-year programme of further support. Mr Cowan said it was 'an honour' to be granted an audience with the president to discuss the charity's ongoing demining efforts in Angola. He said: 'We thanked him for his extraordinary dedication to and investment in the vision of a mine-free country, and he expressed his intention to continue to support our work with a further significant contract for the next three years. 'Our partnership is strengthened and renewed, and we are grateful to President Lourenço for his leadership on this critical issue.' In September 2024, Mr Cowan said: 'Carrying on her [Princess Diana's] legacy is a responsibility that I take seriously. I think we all know how much she would want us to finish this particular job.' The details of the Duke's trip were leaked by a tabloid newspaper shortly after he landed in Luanda. The Halo Trust had planned to announce the visit later on Wednesday, following his various meetings and engagements. It marked the second breach of trust within days, after specific details of a highly sensitive 'peace summit' held between senior aides working for the Duke and the King were also leaked. The development risked jeopardising the fragile peace operation, creating yet further suspicion and distrust on both sides, when they had hoped to instigate a new period of more civil relations. The Duke travelled alone to Luanda, from where he was due to take a series of small two-person planes to the minefields he will walk across. It is hoped that the visit will encourage more donations from the Angolan government. In June 2019, two months before his last visit, the local government pledged $60 million to the cause, contracting the Halo Trust to clear 153 minefields in Luengue-Luiana and Mavinga national parks. That September, the Duke travelled to a minefield in Dirico, a remote area in the south-east, where he safely detonated a device. In Huambo, he renamed the orthopaedic centre that Princess Diana had visited in her honour. In August 2013, the Duke made a private visit to Cuito Cuanavale in Angola with the Halo Trust, wearing the same protective gear his mother had worn on her own historic trip. He wrote in his memoir, Spare: 'I was deeply frustrated to learn from the charity's executives and fieldworkers that the job she'd spotlighted, indeed the entire global crusade my mother had helped launch, was now stalled. 'Lack of resources, lack of resolve. This had been Mummy's most passionate cause at the end. Taking up her cause, detonating a land mine myself, made me feel closer to her, and gave me strength, and hope.'
NDTV
16-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Why Prince Harry Is In Angola, Repeating Mother Diana's 1997 Trip
Cape Town: Prince Harry visited the African nation of Angola on Tuesday with a land mine clearing charity, repeating a famous trip his mother made in 1997. Harry met with Angolan President João Lourenço on Tuesday at the start of his trip, according to a statement from the Halo Trust, an organization that works to clear land mines from old warzones. visited Angola with the Halo Trust in January 1997, just seven months before she was killed in a Paris car crash. Diana was famously photographed on that trip wearing protective equipment and walking through an active minefield during a break in fighting in Angola's long civil war. Her advocacy helped mobilize support for a treaty banning land mines later that year. This is not the first time Harry by raising awareness for the Halo Trust's work. He also visited the southern African country in 2019 for a land mine clearing project. British media reported that Harry traveled to Angola this week without his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Halo Trust CEO James Cowan said in a statement Tuesday that he and Harry met with Lourenço to discuss continued demining efforts in Angola and thanked the president for his support for that work. Angola was torn apart by a 27-year civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 2002, with some brief and fragile periods of peace in between. The Halo Trust says there are estimates that around 80,000 Angolans have been killed or injured by land mines during and after the war, although there are no exact figures. The organization says just over 1,000 minefields covering an estimated 67 square kilometers (26 square miles) still needed to be cleared at the end of 2024. Angola had set itself a goal to be land mine-free by 2025.
