Former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos dies in Barcelona

July 8. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The former president of Angola José Eduardo dos Santos has died this Friday in a Barcelona clinic where he was admitted at the end of June, as confirmed by the Government of the African country through a statement on its official account on the social network Facebook.

“The Executive of the Republic of Angola informs national and international public opinion, with a great feeling of pain and consternation, of the death of His Excellency the former President of the Republic José Eduardo dos Santos, which occurred today at 11:10 a.m. and certified by the medical bulletin of the Barcelona clinic after a prolonged illness”, he pointed out.

Thus, he has shown his “great respect and consideration for the figure of a statesman of great historical dimension who governed for many years with clairvoyance and humanism the destinies of the Angolan nation in very difficult times”. “The Executive presents the bereaved family and its deepest feelings of regret, while calling for serenity in this moment of pain and consternation”, he has riveted.

The former president was admitted on June 23 to an intensive care unit of a Barcelona clinic, while last week official sources reported that he was in a coma. Dos Santos returned to Angola in September 2021 after more than two years of exile in Barcelona, ​​although he later left the country again.

Dos Santos, 79, was president of the African country between 1979 and 2017, when he was succeeded by Joao Lourenço. Despite the fact that Lourenço was a trusted man of Dos Santos, since coming to power he has launched numerous campaigns against the corruption of the former president’s close circle, including his daughter, Isabel dos Santos, considered in the past as the richest woman in the country. Africa.

During his Presidency, Dos Santos was also Commander-in-Chief of the Angolan Armed Forces and President of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the party that has governed the country since its independence from Portugal in November 1975.