She may have been little-known in political circles until now, but by putting herself forward as the first female independent presidential candidate, Luisete Macedo Araújo (50) has thrust herself into the limelight. Araújo is the first Angolan woman to set her sights on the country’s top job, held for the last 30 years by the same man, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Angola’s independent press has played an important role in holding the country’s leadership to account, writes Sylvia Croese, but there are increasing fears that critical voices will be crowded out, after a group with suspected links to the government bought out three private newspapers. Angola’s media landscape is largely dominated by the state, which owns two national television stations, the national radio broadcaster, the daily national newspaper and the national press agency.

A human rights campaigner has been sentenced to three years in jail by an Angolan court that convicted him of committing crimes against the state, in what his lawyer says is part of a crackdown on activists. A judge found Angolan rights activist Andre Zeferino Puati guilty late on Thursday after authorities found documents in his possession aimed at inciting people to protest against the government, his lawyer said.

In the aftermath of the fatal attack on the Togolese football team on 8 January in Cabinda, Angola, the country's authorities moved to actively censor full and accurate coverage of what occurred, writes Rafael Marques de Morais.

A group of civil society organisations are making public a letter sent to the Minister of the Interior of Angola Mr Roberto Leal Monteiro Ngongo to express their concern about the situation of human rights defenders in that country.

On January 8, while Angola was hosting the African Cup of Nations, the country made worldwide headlines after a deadly attack on the Togolese national soccer team, which left a coach and a journalist dead. With international attention turning to the story, a shroud of state censorship and self-censorship by the Angolan media obscured the factual circumstances of the attack and its aftermath

Susana Mendes is the first woman to hold the title of editor in chief at Angolense, Angola's leading investigative weekly--and she is doing it a bit differently than her predecessor. She is in charge of directing coverage of the country's $1.7 billion oil industry, government corruption and injustices in the poorer neighborhoods of Angola. However, she also keeps the paper routinely focused on a topic often treated as a special women's issue: domestic violence.

The Constitution Commission that reviewed Angola's constitution, which had been in force since February 2005, was dissolved on Wednesday by the National Assembly during its 12th plenary ordinary session.

After more than a decade of volunteer work in Angola's rural Matala district in the southern province of Huila, a Finnish doctor is seeing maternal mortality rates gradually come down in a country where about one in every 70 women dies in childbirth. Since 1998 Birgitta Long has spent three months each year working as a volunteer in a run-down clinic handicapped by staff and skills shortages, and which battles to source emergency medicines, but she sees the growing queue of women coming for medical help as a step in the right direction.

About 210,000 primary school students from eight of Angola's 18 provinces will benefit from two million text-books offered to the Ministry of Education by the European Union (EU).

Manuel Vicente, chair and director-general of Angolan state oil company Sonangol, had the distinction in 2008 of doing a business deal with himself in taking a percentage of Sonangol Holdings in his own name, writes Rafael Marques de Morais. This was an act in direct contravention of the country's 'Law on Public Probity', Marques de Morais stresses.

£24,636 - £27,642 per annum + benefits
London, Waterloo

We’re working with our partners in Angola with the focus “Justice in the use of power”. Together we help communities and groups strengthen their livelihoods, adapt to climate change, reduce the suffering caused by HIV and improve human rights. Take responsibility for monitoring and evaluation, and you’ll be key in helping us achieve our aims.

About the role
Everyone from individuals, churches and businesses to Irish Aid, Comic Relief and others, donate funds to Christian Aid. With your help we can be sure we’re putting that money to the best use. Monitoring and evaluating all of our Angola Programme projects and processes, you’ll look at how we’re using our resources to identify areas of potential improvement. An enthusiastic team player, you will contribute towards the programme’s total quality ensuring you communicate effectively with partners and valuing their experience and knowledge. You’ll also take charge of administrative and finance systems making sure our processes meet with compliance standards. You will use this information to produce and update regular reports, budgets and other documents and create an informative bank of resources that we can use internally, as well as provide to external donors. You will also use your theoretical and practical expertise to help us learn from our partners’ realities and our day-to-day work to improve the programme. At the same time, it’s a huge learning opportunity for you.

About you
You’ll probably join us from an NGO, an association or research centre, a government agency or the UN and you might already be a Programme Officer, or alternatively a Compliance or Finance Officer interested in moving into a more general development role. But no matter what your background, you must have a proven interest in Monitoring and Evaluation, a good understanding of the difficulties faced in Angola, and the experience of supporting development programmes, preferably in Africa. Liaising effectively with colleagues and outside organisations, you’ll need to be confident in networking and your results-orientation skills and desire to learn will help you deliver excellent standards of administrative support, as well as act on your own initiative. And, as you will work daily with our partners in Angola and spend up to 30 days a year in Angola itself, you’ll need excellent written and spoken Portuguese as well as a flexible attitude towards travel.

About Christian Aid
More than half the world lives in poverty. We aim to put a stop to that. So we campaign against the inequalities that keep people poor and we work with local organisations to give people strength to find their own solutions to the problems they face, irrespective of their religion. If you’re as determined as we are to end poverty and injustice across the world, work with us to make change happen.

About the rewards
We value the input of everyone who works for us. That’s why you can expect a wide range of rewards including a generous holiday allowance, a season ticket loan and the flexibility that helps you enjoy a good work/life balance. To find out more and apply, download an application pack at

Reference number: 008/EC
Closing date: 12 noon, Monday 10 May 2010
Interview date: 19 May 2010
This is a fixed term contract until December 2011

The government of Angola has not done enough to combat pervasive corruption and mismanagement, Human Rights Watch has said in a report. Even though the oil-rich country's gross domestic product has increased by more than 400 percent in the last six years, Angolans are not seeing their lives improve accordingly, Human Rights Watch said.

Civil society organisations in Angola gave a lesson of citizenship, courageously marching to say “Don’t Push Down My House”.The demonstration finally and peacefully took place in the coastal city of Benguela. Despite of the ban announced by the provincial government, the march managed to break the silence and voice the protest against the brutal house demolitions and forced land evictions that have become a regular occurrence in Angola in the last years.

The march against home demolitions and forced evictions 'Don’t Push Down My House' was scheduled to take place on Saturday April 10, in Benguela, Angola. In a letter to Omunga, the provincial governor of Benguela did not authorize the demonstration because 'the province of Benguela has not registered demolitions, forced land evictions and other acts that collide against the law'.

Thousands of construction workers are being laid off in Angola because the government has failed to settle over $2 billion in arrears to foreign firms rebuilding the African nation, a union leader said on Thursday. Francisco Jacinto, leader of the country's largest union CGSILA, said the arrears and a slowdown in the construction sector were the two main reasons behind the lay-offs.

Civil society organisations are making public, worldwide, a communication by the Provincial Government of Benguela (Angola) that banned the demonstration that would take place in Benguela, last Thursday (March 25th), against the brutal demolitions and forced evictions that have become a regular occurrence in major cities and rural communities in Angola.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/475/63298_demolition_tmb.jpgSe… people are said to have been killed and 2,000 homes destroyed in a new wave of large-scale demolitions in the Angolan city Lubanga, as part of a government clearance programme to make way for public construction or infrastructure projects, writes Sylvia Croese. Local non-governmental organisations report that almost 3,000 families have been evicted and temporarily accommodated in schools and stadiums before being forcibly transferred to Tchavola, an area 9km outside of Lubango city centre, where they are expected to rebuild their lives. So far, only 700 tents have been distributed to provide temporary shelter for the families in Tchavola, where there is no basic sanitation and little access to electricity, food or blankets. A demonstration in solidarity with the victims of the demolitions was planned for 25 March.

It is curious that natural disasters are unpredictable and governments establish early warning systems and trigger mechanisms to respond quickly when they happen to mitigate its effects, writes Luis Samacumbi. For the demolition of Lubango, one or the other mechanism was implemented but the disaster was caused by a decision without weighing the consequences of such an act. If it were possible such disasters would be avoided. In the case of Angola disasters are created.

The latest in a series of brutal, forced evictions in Angola took place earlier this month when riot police swept through a provincial capital, Lubango, killing seven people, including four children between four and twelve years old.