World
Amnesty International Demands Angola Release Activists
Angola’s president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. (Themba Hadebe/AP Photo)
(BBC) – A leading rights group has called for the release of at least 13 people, including a rapper and an academic, held in Angola for allegedly plotting to oust the president.
The detentions were a “ploy to suppress dissenting voices”, Amnesty International said.
The group was arrested last month after attending a meeting to discuss the human rights situation in Angola.
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has governed the country since 1979.
The former Portuguese colony is Africa’s main oil producer after Nigeria, and the biggest military spender in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
