Former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Africa’s second-largest oil producer for nearly four decades, has died at the age of 79.
The former president died on Friday morning at the Barcelona Teknon clinic after a long illness, the presidency said. A spokesman for the clinic declined to comment. Dos Santos had been receiving medical treatment since 2019.
The Portuguese news agency Lusa reported last month that Dos Santos had been admitted to the intensive care unit of a clinic in Barcelona.
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The current head of state of Angola, João Lourenço, announced five days of national mourning from Friday, when the country’s flag will be flown at half-staff and public events will be canceled.
Dos Santos, one of Africa’s oldest leaders, left office five years ago. His government was marked by a brutal civil war that lasted nearly three decades against the U.S.-backed Unita rebels – which the former president won in 2002 – and a subsequent oil-fueled boom.
In 2017 he was replaced by Lourenço, who, despite being from the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, acted quickly to investigate allegations of multimillion-dollar corruption during the Dos Santos era, aimed at the children of the former leader.
Dos Santos, who married four times, is survived by his current wife, Ana Paula, with whom he has three children. She is known to have at least three more children and several grandchildren.
More details soon