Former Angolan president, Dos Santos is dead

Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos has died at the age of 79.

The country’s presidency said the former president died on Friday morning at the Barcelona Teknon clinic after a prolonged illness.

However, a report said a spokesperson for the clinic declined to comment.

It was gathered that last month that Dos Santos was in coma and had been receiving medical treatment since 2019.

Angola’s current head of state, João Lourenço has declared five days of national mourning starting on Friday, when the country’s flag will fly at half-mast and public events will be cancelled.

Dos Santos, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, stepped down five years ago. His rule was marked by a brutal civil war lasting nearly three decades against the US-backed (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) UNITA rebels – which the former president won in 2002 – and a subsequent oil-fuelled boom.

He was replaced in 2017 by Lourenço, who, despite being from the incumbent’s People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, speedily decided to probe allegations of multibillion-dollar corruption during the ex-president era, targeting the former leader’s children.

Meanwhile the Daughter Of Angola’s Dos Santos has demanded the hospital retain his body for an autopsy following fears of foul play.

Tchize dos Santos “has requested… that the Teknon medical centre hold onto the body Until an appropriate autopsy is carried out on fears it could be transferred to Angola,” her lawyers said in a statement.

The 79-year-old was rushed to hospital and placed in in intensive care after suffering a cardiac arrest on June 23, his family said.

But on Monday, his 44-year-old daughter — whose full name is Welwitschia dos Santos — filed a legal case against his current wife and personal physician for attempted murder, police and her lawyers said.

Dos Santos, who was married four times, is survived by his current wife, Ana Paula, with whom he has three children. He is known to have at least three other children and various grandchildren.