Angolan police killed 17 protestors over 30 months – Amnesty

Amnesty International said Wednesday it had evidence that Angolan police killed at least 17 protesters by using excessive force, including live bullets, against public demonstrations over around 30 months.

None of the officers or their superiors responsible for the killings had faced justice, the rights group said in a report that accused police of a brutal crackdown instead of respecting the right to peaceful assembly.

Police are notoriously tough in oil-rich Angola, a legacy of a 1975-2002 civil war and almost four decades of repression under former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

The current president, former defence minister Joao Lourenco, took over in 2017 and is due to meet US President Joe Biden when he visits the southwestern African country next month.

Amnesty said it had investigated police action at 11 demonstrations between November 2020 and June 2023 over issues such as rising costs of living, claims of election fraud and delays in municipal elections.

It found that police “officers deployed live bullets and tear gas against demonstrators, killing at least 17 people, while beating and arbitrarily detaining others in violation of Angolan and international law.”

In the deadliest incident, police killed at least 10 people in January 2021 after opening fire on an anti-poverty protest in the diamond mining town of Cafunfo, around 750 kilometres (470 miles) east of the capital Luanda, it said.

Police at the time acknowledged the deaths of six demonstrators but claimed they had acted in self-defence after protestors from a secessionist group assaulted a police station, wounding two officers.

Amnesty said that a 12-year-old boy was among at least four people killed in a protest in the central city of Huambo in June 2023 when police fired live ammunition at the group.

Its report was based on interviews and reviews of more than 50 videos and photos of the events, official documents, social media posts, media and other sources, it said.

“Police frequently used force unnecessarily, including reckless firing of firearms, grenades and tear gas, against protesters who were not engaged or threatening to engage in violent behaviour,” the report said.

Police were stifling protests and compromising the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, it said, calling for allegations of police killings or other inhuman treatment against protestors to be investigated.

AFP