Angola has denied entry to several senior African political figures set to attend a conference hosted by the country’s main opposition party, UNITA.
UNITA said it had invited the politicians, including Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagalunyi aka Bobi Wine from Uganda, and Mozambique’s Venancio Mondlane.
Botswana’s former President Ian Khama, had also been invited to the summit but was detained at the airport in Luanda for nine hours.
“The action of the Angolan government to prevent us from entering Angola is inexplicable and unacceptable,” Lissu said on X.
Kenyan senator Edwin Sifuna, from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, said on X he was among those denied entry into Angola.
A platform for African Democrats (PAD), a group of opposition parties across Africa, said in a statement that delegates from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Sudan who had visas or were eligible for visas on arrival were deported.
Kyagulanyi, we have been told had been invited as one of the guest speakers at the conference. He was set to travel with Najja Sharif Ssenyonjo, NUP’s Deputy Secretary for Research on March 13.
Colombia’s former President Andres Pastrana, Zanzibar’s first Vice-President Othman Masoud Othman and 24 others were detained at the airport for nine hours with no explanation. They were released but missed their connecting flights, according to PAD.
“The government of this country is ruling a dictatorship while pretending that Angola is a democratic country,” Tanzania’s Lissu said.
