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Intelligence Brief: Angola Fuel-Price Protests Escalate

Intelligence Brief: Angola Fuel-Price Protests Escalate

Evarist Chahali's avatar
Evarist Chahali
Jul 31, 2025
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Intelligence Brief: Angola Fuel-Price Protests Escalate
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Parts of the capital, Luanda, came to a standstill on Monday [Photo: BBC}

Ujasusi Blog’s Southern Africa Monitoring Team | 🗓️31 July 2025 | 🕛0000


Executive Summary

Between 28 and 30 July 2025, Angola witnessed its most disruptive unrest in a decade. A strike by the informal, yet economically critical, minibus-taxi sector against a 33 % diesel-price increase quickly morphed into nationwide protests over living costs, governance, and socio-economic grievances.

  • Fatalities: 22 confirmed dead — including at least one police officer.

  • Injuries: 197 civilians and officers treated for gunshot wounds, rubber-bullet injuries, and assault trauma.

  • Arrests: 1,214 detained on charges ranging from vandalism to “acts against state security.”

  • Damage: 66 shops looted; 25 vehicles destroyed; multiple arterial roads in Luanda blocked with burning debris.

  • Geographical spread: Epicentre in Luanda, but incidents reported in Huambo and Icolo e Bengo provinces.

  • Drivers: Removal of fuel subsidies amid 70,000-kwanza (≈ US $75) average monthly wages; delayed public-sector pay rise; entrenched dissatisfaction with 50 years of MPLA rule.

Although security forces re-established partial control by 30 July, high structural pressures and a newly emboldened protest cohort point to a prolonged cycle of episodic unrest through 2025.

1. Background: Subsidy-Reform as Flashpoint

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