African democrats condemn Angola for denying leaders entry

A group of African democrats have condemned the Angolan government's decision to bar certain leaders from entering the country.

In a statement, the leaders under the Platform for African Democrats who were attending the Benguela meeting in Angola termed the action as a move to undermine democracy.

This is after Angola denied entry to some African leaders who were supposed to attend a two-day political retreat in Luanda.

“The events in Luanda and Benguela have shown how ‘authoritarian democracies’ systematically abuse their structures to retain power at the expense of their people while pretending to maintain democratic niceties. The fight for democracy, openness, and accountability is stronger than ever,” the leaders claimed.

According to the leaders, several delegates from Uganda were denied visas for ‘technical reasons’.

 Additionally, 12 others who had visas from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Sudan were held at the airport and later deported.

Another group, including the president, prime ministers, and 24 others, were detained at the airport for nine hours without explanation.

Their passports were later returned and released when it was too late to schedule a flight to Benguela.

The Angolan government then promised to compensate the delegates by ferrying them to Benguela, but it later claimed several vehicles had “broken down” en route to the airport as no aircraft was made available.

 The leaders have termed the incident as a move to stop the leaders' quest to discuss issues of democracy.

“Through his security and immigration officials, President João Lourenço has demonstrated an unwillingness to countenance even the discussion of ideas around democracy by fellow Africans concerned with moving the continent forward to a future where all its people benefit from its incredible wealth of resources,” they claimed.

They have further called on President Lourenço to apologise for the situation.

“ At no point were those held given any explanation for their detention or for the deportation of the others. We call on President Lourenço to issue a public apology to the heads of state who were held, the delegates who were deported, and those who were harassed by his regime’s efforts to halt the meeting.