After Two Years in Exile, Angolan Ex-President Dos Santos Returns

Angola’s former President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, returned house on Tuesday after virtually three years in self-imposed exile following the brand new chief’s crackdown on his household’s multi-billion greenback enterprise pursuits.

 

Dos Santos, who dominated Africa’s second-biggest oil producer from 1979 to 2017, landed in Luanda at about 11 a.m. native time, state-news company Angop reported on Tuesday. The 79-year-old’s return could counsel there’s an settlement with President Joao Lourenco, who started concentrating on his predecessor’s youngsters virtually instantly after coming to energy in 2017.

 

“I consider this can be a signal that the 2 could come to some kind of understanding,” mentioned Antonio Estote, an unbiased economist and professor on the Universidade Lusiada de Angola. “It’s a political transfer forward of the ruling MPLA social gathering’s congress in December.”

 

Dos Santos has been dwelling in Barcelona for the previous three years and has by no means been formally accused of any crime in Angola. His return takes place as the federal government struggles to jump-start an economic system that has been mired in recession for the previous 5 years and is scheduled to carry presidential elections subsequent 12 months.

 

The truce could assist preserve the ruling social gathering united and enhance Lourenco’s probability of re-election.

Frozen Property

Inside months of coming to energy in 2017, Lourenco fired dos Santos’ eldest daughter, Isabel, as chairwoman of state-owned oil firm Sonangol. Two years later, Angolan authorities froze her property in Angola and overseas. Isabel, who has been dwelling in Dubai, mentioned in an interview in April that the freezing order was destroying her companies.

 

Lourenco, a former protection minister in dos Santos’ authorities, has mentioned the transfer in opposition to Isabel dos Santos is a part of an anti-corruption marketing campaign geared toward recovering billions of {dollars} that have been illegally transferred overseas. His administration estimates that greater than $24 billion was looted throughout dos Santos’s 38-rule, a interval through which the Worldwide Financial Fund says the state didn’t correctly file its oil income.

 

Previous to the freeze order, Isabel was value about $2.4 billion, making her Africa’s wealthiest lady, based on information compiled by Bloomberg. Her half-brother, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, was sentenced to 5 years in jail in August final 12 months after being discovered responsible of embezzlement and fraud — a ruling he’s interesting.