The family of the former Angolan president in power for nearly 40 years and who died in Spain last month is torn around the funeral which will therefore take place in the Angolan capital.
A plane from Barcelona, Spain, with the body of the former president on board landed in the Angolan capital on Saturday evening, AFP journalists have noted. About twenty people were present at the airport to receive the coffin of Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. Several children of the late president and his widow Ana Paula Dos Santos were also present. Onlookers applauded as the coffin covered with an Angolan flag passed.
After months of legal battles in Spain, Ana Paula Dos Santos took advantage of the decision of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, which entrusted her with the body of her husband, to repatriate him as quickly as possible to Angola.
It must be said that the widow faced fierce opposition from her daughter-in-law, Tchizé Dos Santos. She wanted a burial in Spain because she accuses the current president of recovering the image of his father to promote his re-election. A few months ago when he entered the campaign, João Lourenço, who has led the country since 2017, called for a vote for “ honor the memory of the late president. A ” world shame for Tchizé Dos Santos who is at the heart of the accusations of corruption and embezzlement of public funds brought by João Lourenço against his family.
But the appeal filed with the Spanish courts did not prevent the transfer of the remains. For the moment, little information circulates on the holding of the funeral. The government must communicate soon on the matter.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who led Angola unchallenged from 1979 to 2017, died on July 8, aged 79, at a clinic in Barcelona where he was hospitalized after suffering cardiac arrest on June 23.