Angola's former president dos Santos dies aged 79
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The former president has been receiving medical treatment since 2019 and was admitted to an intensive care unit in Barcelona last month where he died today.
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Angola's former president dos Santos
Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Angola's former president, who was the president of Africa's second-biggest oil producer for almost four decades, passed away at 79 years old on Friday, the presidency stated.
The former president was being treated at the Teknon clinic in Barcelona, Spain, after a prolonged illness, the statement said.
His successor, Angola's current President Joao Lourenco, announced five days of national mourning and called dos Santos a "unique figure of the Angolan homeland, to which he dedicated himself from a very early age."
Five years ago, dos Santos stepped down, after being one of Africa's longest-serving leaders.
Dos Santos frequently said he was an accidental president, ruling after Angola's first leader, Agostinho Neto, passed away in 1979 while undergoing cancer surgery.
During his rule, a nearly three-decade civil war occurred against US-backed UNITA rebels. Angola won the war in 2002 and witnessed an oil-fuelled boom.
Last month, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported that the former president was admitted to an intensive care unit in Barcelona after he has been receiving treatment since 2019.
In an Instagram post, his daughter Tchizé dos Santos said that "fathers never die because they are the truest love that children know in all their lives. They live forever within us."
