Angola: Unrest over fuel price hike leaves at least 22 dead 

The Angolan government on Wednesday said that at least 22 people died as an increase in fuel costs in the oil-rich southern African nation caused two days of violent unrest, leaving hundreds injured and over 1,200 people detained.
 
Two days of unrest and looting in Angola during a protest against a fuel price hike claimed the lives of 22 people, the government said Wednesday, as a tense calm returned to the capital.

Violence erupted on Monday, the first day of a strike called by taxi drivers to protest the July 1 increase in fuel costs in the oil-rich nation where millions live in poverty.

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.

People raided supermarkets and warehouses, making off with food and other supplies, and causing damage to 66 shops, Homem said.

The streets of Luanda were tense and largely empty Wednesday, although there were some queues outside petrol stations and some shops, AFP reporters said. There was a heavy presence of security forces.

Many shops remained closed, but public transport slowly resumed 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. He was part of a group attempting to invade the local headquarters of the ruling MPLA party, a statement said.

'Deep insecurity'

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 litre on July 1.

The government's move to lower its heavy fuel subsidies reportedly followed International Monetary Fund calls for more public money to be spent on health and education.

But it has angered many in the country of 36 million people, already under pressure from inflation of around 20 percent and an unemployment rate of nearly 30 percent.

"The government seems to ignore its population," Luanda resident Daniel Pedro, 32, told AFP. "They say that youth is the future of tomorrow, yet today it is unemployed. I have a deep feeling of insecurity," the teacher said.

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 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 on 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.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)