On Saturday evening, an aircraft carrying José Eduardo dos Santos’ body touched down in Luanda. The former president of Angola, who ruled for 38 years, passed away last month in Barcelona, where he had been receiving treatment and living since 2019.
An argument that had been going on since July 8 has come to an end with the arrival of José Eduardo dos Santos’ remains in Angola. After a legal dispute between two sides of the family in the Spanish courts, the body was given to his wife, Ana Paula dos Santos.
Prior to the upcoming elections, the older children, Tchizé, Corean Du, and Isabel dos Santos, opposed the body being given to the widow and the repatriation of the deceased president’s remains.
To commemorate the former president’s return home, several Angolans gathered at the airport in the nation’s capital Luanda.
“Angola is a country that has lived through a period of great turbulence, and he is a leader who has worked for the pacification of the country.”, reacted Simão Matilde, a civil servant.
“We were very sad to lose José Eduardo dos Santos. We are all eduardistas, our parents and husbands were from the F APLA (Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola 1975-1991) and all of them were in these forces, in Luanda and north of Luanda.”, said Leonor dos Santos Cruz Paim, TAAG Economist. Claudio Neves, a high school student also paid tribute to “the president who gave independence, freedom to the country”.
The remains was then taken to the former president’s official residence in Luanda, where it will remain until the funeral, for which the date remains undetermined. August 28, José Eduardo dos Santos’s birthday, was suggested as a possibility.