Angola & Cabinda (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

From the BBC an update and a claim by a FLEC spin-off group:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8454321.stm

The Togo football team has now withdrawn from the competition.

[M-A Lagrange]

Here are some interesting stuff on FLEC:
It's in French, I did not find anything in English.

A dissident FLEC group claim the attack:
Apparently our friends from Cabinda are no more united.

Officials from FLEC denied any responsibilities in the attack and are labeling the FLEC-PM as opportunists.

http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/12012010/...010111106.html

Anyways, France and DRC have announced they will dismantle the FLEC groups on their territories.

FLEC-PM seems to be more vindictive than the FLEC-FAC (the historical one and only official one for the moment).

It's just a beginning said Rodriguez Mingas, the FLEC-MP leader.

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/63/20100111...l-5cc6428.html

FLEC is one of the many insurgent groups I like. I have been monitoring the Cabinda border during 2007-2008. In fact FLEC is a real problem for Angola. And they jeopardized for real relations between DRC and Angola in Bas Congo. We even had Angolian troops entering DRC and raising Angolian flag in a small village once. They claimed they were looking for FLEC members.


The FLEC site:
http://www.cabinda.org/francais.htm

[davidbfpo]

BBC report:

Four human rights activists have been jailed in Angola for reported links with a separatist group which attacked the Togolese football team in January.....The BBC's Louise Redvers says the four men are believed to have met with exiled Flec leaders in Paris to try to set up dialogue with the Angolan government in a bid to seek an end to the decades of violent struggle in the province.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10857125

[davidbfpo]

Pre-publication publicity for a new book 'In The Name of The People' by an ex-BBC journalist, Lara Pawson, an event I cannot recall:

On 27th May 1977, a small demonstration against the MPLA, the ruling party of Angola - led to the slaughter of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people. These dreadful reprisals are little talked of in Angola today - and virtually unknown outside the country. In this book, journalist Lara Pawson tracks down the story of what really happened in the aftermath of that fateful day. In a series of vivid encounters, she talks to eyewitnesses, victims and even perpetrators of the violent and confusing events of the 27th May and the following weeks and months. From London to Lisbon to Luanda, she meets those who continue to live in the shadow of the appalling events of 40 years ago and who - in most cases - have been too afraid to speak about them before. As well as shedding light on the events of 1977, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of modern Angola - its people and its politics; past, present and future.

Link to Amazon:http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-Name-Peop.../dp/1780769059

Reviews on publisher's website:http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humani...3DC9E30B2C4%7D

This is a long article written in November 2013, by academic and will have to be read another day. Seems like it was an attempted coup.

Link:http://africafiles.org/article.asp?id=26885

[davidbfpo]

We can currently observe a great variety of ‘morbid symptoms’ of fin de régime in Angola, ranging from the farcical to the tragic. It would appear the government of long-time President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and his ruling MPLA can hear the pealing of the doomsday bells. However, according to the official interpretation, this impending doom is not a result of years of misrule, politics of exclusion, and the recent steep decline in oil prices, which quite dramatically revealed the persistent, gross mismanagement of public revenues, but rather because of the conspiracies of ‘internal enemies’.

Link:http://africanarguments.org/2015/07/...-jon-schubert/

[Misifus]

Another exercise in Western-style Intellectualism. This is precisely what got Angola into trouble in the first place. What are we proposing in this thread? The right to go save the place?

Gringo go home. Leave them alone, they are making progress in their own way.

[davidbfpo]

Another exercise in Western-style Intellectualism. This is precisely what got Angola into trouble in the first place. What are we proposing in this thread? The right to go save the place?

Gringo go home. Leave them alone, they are making progress in their own way.

This thread contains IIRC pointers to information on a country that rarely features in the media and no-one is proposing any course of action.

As for Angolans making progress, I certainly get the impression those in power are making plenty of progress, very few others are.