Attacks Against Activists Increase
Activist Adolfo Campos André, aged 32, survived an attack yesterday, June 15, when he was on his way home at about 11P.M. Two Toyota Landcruisers blocked his car, a Chevrolet Spark, in Petrangol Road in Luanda.
Adolfo André, who is currently unemployed, told Maka Angola that four unknown individuals, armed with AK47s, got out of the vehicles and surrounding him, pointing their guns at him. “I got out of the car with my hands in the air,” he said.
According to his statement, two of the individuals struck him on the face with the ends of their guns at the same time, leaving him with injuries next to his right eye.
“I fell to the ground bleeding, and one of the men got ready to shoot at me but the other told him not to. They left straight away and I shouted for help,” Adolfo André said.
A family member took him to Prenda Hospital, where he received two stitches on the right side of his face. He then had to go to a private hospital, as the public hospital did not have the anti-tetanus vaccine prescribed by the doctor.
Adolfo André has organised youth demonstrations against the long tenure of president José Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in office since 1979. This was the second time that he had been injured in the face by attackers. The previous time was on September 3, 2011, during a protest against the abduction of his colleague Pandita Nehru, when an assault by police officers left him with five stitches in his upper lip. On that occasion, Adolfo André and another man, Gaspar Luamba, were taken unconscious to the hospital as a result of the beating they received. Adolfo André spent 43 days in prison.
After he took part in the attempted protest on 10 March this year, which was violently halted by pro-government militias, his family threw him out of their home in response to the threats that had been made against them.