Month: January 2026

Judges Breaking the Law to Jail Critics of President Lourenço

In Angola, judges are breaking the law to keep critics of President João Lourenço behind bars. The case of social activist Osvaldo Caholo is not an isolated judicial failure. When examined alongside the detention of Serrote José de Oliveira, widely known as “General Nila,” it reveals a consistent pattern of judicial non-compliance with the law in politically sensitive cases in Angola. On 12 January 2026, the Guarantees Judge of the 5th Section of the Criminal Division of the Luanda District Court, Maria Nazaré Dias, ordered activist Osvaldo Caholo to stand immediate trial on charges of Rebellion, Public Incitement to Crime, and Public Apology of Crime. At the same time, she unlawfully refused the adversarial investigation (instrução contraditória) requested by the defense counsels Bruno Xingui and Simão Afonso, despite clear provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code requiring adversarial judicial scrutiny when legal or factual objections are raised. Caholo had already been […]

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Shot by Police, Jailed Without a Crime

“General Nila” has now been detained for six months. He was shot by officers of the Criminal Investigation Service while walking to a hospital with his siblings before being taken into custody, as documented by Maka Angola. On 14 October 2025, the Office of the Presiding Judge of the Luanda District Court denied a habeas corpus application submitted by defense counsel Hermenegildo Teotónio for street bookseller Serrote José de Oliveira “General Nila”. The ruling held that he was charged exclusively with the offence of Disruption of the Provision of Public Services, under Article 4 of the Law on Crimes of Vandalism, and with no other offence. “General Nila” has now been detained for six months. He was shot by and officer of the Criminal Investigation Service while walking to a hospital with his siblings, before being taken into custody, as documented by Maka Angola. On 4 December 2025, however, the […]

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Manufacturing Enemies: Inside Angola’s Security State

Shot by police on the first day of Angola’s taxi drivers’ strike, a street bookseller known as “General Nila” has been held for over six months without formal charges. His case exposes a pattern of repression, suspended legality, and the deliberate manufacture of enemies to sustain power. Detained on 28 July 2025 after being shot by police on the first day of Angola’s taxi drivers’ strike, Serrote José de Oliveira — widely known as “General Nila” — has been held for over six months without formal charges. According to his family and lawyers, he remains in detention despite a guarantees judge’s order for his hospitalization and the rejection of a habeas corpus petition. Earlier that morning, Nila was walking with his younger brothers, Bartolo and Pascoal, to Talatona Municipal Hospital to visit a hospitalized relative. His family says they were not participating in any protest and that there were no […]

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Cybersecurity: Angola’s Latest Tool of Authoritarian Consolidation

Angola’s proposed cybersecurity law, presented as a modern response to digital threats, instead deepens the country’s authoritarian drift by centralising state power, weakening judicial oversight and expanding surveillance across the entire digital sphere—posing a direct threat to the already fragile constitutional guarantees that remain in place. Angola has yet to experience a real democratic movement at all. What exists instead is a formal democratic Constitution that permits to entrench an increasingly authoritarian system of power, sustained by the absence of real political democratic alternation, weakened institutions and a systematically shrinking civic space. This system is usually referred to as an anocracy, combining elements typical of democracies with dictatorial practices. These systems are inherently unstable and prone to arbitrariness. Within this context, the proposed cybersecurity legislation must be read not as neutral regulation but as an instrument of authoritarian consolidation. It forms part of a broader legislative package designed to expand […]

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War on Civil Society, Continuity of Plunder

Unable to halt Angola’s structural plunder, the government of João Lourenço has declared war on civil society. The new NGO law turns popular dissent into an enemy of the State and uses “security” as a smokescreen to protect a failing regime and the impunity of plunder. The proposed Law on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that the ruling MPLA is preparing to approve on January 22, 2025, is an act of political desperation. It is designed to conceal the disastrous governance of João Lourenço and to divert attention from Angola’s ongoing structural plunder. It is the latest manoeuvre by a party that has ruled the country without interruption since independence in 1975 — after five decades of state capture. From its preamble to its final chapters, the law abandons the constitutional framework of freedom of association (Article 48 of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola) and places NGOs under a permanent […]

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Angola’s “Fake News” Law Risks Criminalising the Internet

Under the banner of fighting “fake news”, Angola’s new bill would expand state control over the internet — putting platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp under pressure and turning independent websites into targets. Civil liberties remain mostly on paper. Angola’s proposed law against “false information on the internet” is a deeply flawed piece of legislation. It is presented as a response to disinformation, yet it reads more like a blueprint for state control of digital speech. In a country where civil liberties are legally established on paper but routinely constrained in practice, this bill accelerates an already dangerous trend: eroding legally established civil liberties through expansive enforcement powers, vague standards and punitive sanctions.  The government claims existing legal tools are insufficient. But if gaps existed, they could be addressed by amending current offences to cover online conduct, preserving proportionality and legal certainty. Instead, the executive proposes a sweeping new regime that […]

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Angola: A Spy Network That Exists Only on Paper

From Africa Org to “Ciência Política de Angola,” the state constructs a chain of imaginary organisations to accuse journalists and opposition youth of espionage. None of the entities exist, and not a single act meets the legal definition of espionage.If Angola truly believed Russia was behind a coup attempt, it would expel diplomats and sever military ties — not keep a Russian general inside the Presidential Palace. The accusation serves internal politics, not national security. This text examines the espionage charges within Case File 3846/25-CE, the same case in which Judge António Negrão uncritically validated the terrorism theory already dismissed by the Public Prosecutor. If the claim of terrorism was absurd, the accusation of espionage is nothing short of a parody. According to the official narrative, two Russian citizens — Igor Ratchin Mihailovic and Lev Matveevich Lakshtanov — allegedly travelled to Angola to set up a clandestine espionage operation, assisted […]

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Angola: When the State Needs Terrorists, It Creates Them

The Public Prosecutor confirmed the taxi strike involved no crime, no violence and no terrorism — yet the court insisted on a fabricated “state of terror.” The real danger was not in the streets, but in a judiciary willing to turn protest into national security fiction. The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) has formally confirmed in writing that the alleged “terrorist conspiracy” connected to the Luanda taxi strike of 28–30 July 2025 never existed. There was no incitement, no violence, no material damage and no criminal plan orchestrated by the leaders of the taxi associations and cooperatives that called the strike. The accusation collapsed entirely, leading to the immediate release of those who had been detained. What had been presented as a national security threat was, in reality, a case of preventive repression and the political manipulation of criminal law.  On 12 December 2025, Public Prosecutor […]

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How Angola Turned a Fashion Designer into a “Terrorist”

Arrested at dawn, stripped of her dignity, and accused of ISIS links without a single act of violence or any evidence, Aisha Lopes became the symbol of a state willing to criminalise faith and invent enemies to justify repression. This report summarizes the case of Aisha Lopes and co‑accused, originally published by Maka Angola in 2017. It demonstrates how the Angolan state fabricated terrorism allegations against innocent citizens — using intimidation, torture, and legal manipulation — in ways that mirror the recent cases of “terrorism” and “espionage” against journalists, youth leaders and association members. The Aisha Lopes case is included here so observers can understand the continuity of abusive investigative methods, the criminalization of religious minorities, and the systematic invention of internal enemies for political purposes. Background of the case On 2 December 2016, just before dawn, more than twenty agents from the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) and associated security […]

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No Money in 2026: Angola Enters a Dangerous Fiscal Year

Angola debates many topics, but often avoids the most fundamental: how the State will finance itself in the immediate future. A close reading of the 2026 General State Budget (OGE), and especially its financing operations, shows a structural and cyclical problem converging — the State is likely to run out of money in 2026. The Ministry of Finance’s Budget Justification Report confirms extreme dependence on both internal and external borrowing to balance the accounts. According to the official “Summary of Revenue by Source,” external financing is expected to account for 23.85% of total resources, and domestic financing for another 21.39%. Nearly 45% of the entire budget is not covered by taxes or fees, but relies on loans that may or may not materialize. Angola will effectively be borrowing continuously to stay afloat. Even more troubling is that part of this borrowing will fund current expenditures, not investment. In practice, the […]

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