Cape Town, South Africa – For Julio Candero, two moments stand out from the recent protests in Angola: the image of a woman being shot from behind by a policeman and the protest cry: “Temos fome – ‘We’re hungry.’”
Following days of demonstrations against the government’s reduction in fuel subsidies, which included looting and burning tyres in the streets, calm has returned to the capital, Luanda, and other parts of the country where protests raged last week.
However, amid the ruins of destroyed businesses and the presence of heavily armed police and the army, Candero believes this is only the beginning.
This is the worst upheaval he has seen in Angola in decades, comparable with the aftermath of a 1977 coup and the violence that followed elections in 1992.
Tens of thousands of Angolans died in both cases as the country suffered the grip of a civil war that started in 1975 and ended in 2002. This past month’s death toll is a fraction of that, but the outrage that followed it is palpable.
“Luanda is slowly regaining its usual rhythm, but obviously, it is a different city. All over the city, you see signs of what happened these last days,” said Candero, who is the director of the Luanda-based rights group, Mosaiko.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Africa’s third-largest oil-producing country last Monday to protest against a government decision to cut fuel subsidies and increase the price of diesel by one-third from July 1.
This followed a first round of protests on July 12 that was largely peaceful.
According to the government, at least 22 people died last week in clashes between the police and protesters, and 197 others were injured. More than 1,200 people were arrested.
The unrest was triggered by a three-day strike by minibus taxi associations to protest against the decision that the government says is part of essential budgetary containment measures.
‘The people live in misery’
Angola has been under increasing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to tighten its budget since 2023, when it last cut fuel subsidies.
President Joao Lourenco’s government says fiscal restraint is necessary, as subsidies account for about 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and debt exceeds 60 percent of GDP.
Economic Coordination Minister Jose de Lima Massano said in April that last year’s fuel subsidies of about $3bn equalled the budget for 1,400 infrastructure and development projects. Of those projects, 500 had to be suspended due to fiscal constraints.
Angola’s President Joao Lourenco [File: Mateus Bonomi/Reuters]
Analysts say part of the problem is Angola’s heavy reliance on oil, which makes up about 60 percent of government revenue and 95 percent of exports. However, the country only produces about 30 percent of its domestic fuel consumption demand from its lone oil refinery, which dates to the colonial era.
What’s more, Angola based its 2025 budget on an oil price of $70 per barrel, but Brent oil futures fell below $60 in April after United States President Donald Trump announced a sharp increase in tariffs.
Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, a professor of economics at the Catholic University of Angola, said the volatility of the oil market leaves Angola in a precarious position.
“It’s a real problem, because the [fuel] subsidies cost annually about $3bn. This is more than the government spending on health and education together,” de Carvalho said, suggesting that the government’s hand was forced.
Nevertheless, he concedes that the timing of the new policy was far from ideal. It coincided with tariff increases in electricity and water bills of up to 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
De Carvalho estimates that in July 2025, the minimum wage also only covered 66 percent of the basket of goods and services it did in 2017 – the year Lourenco came to power.
At the same time, low wages and rising unemployment have left millions of Angolans facing poverty and hunger. “This is where we must look for the causes of the popular uprisings that have marked Angola, especially Luanda,” he said.
To make matters worse, government leaders failed to explain the motivation for the increases.
Commercial oil production in Angola started in the mid-1950s. In 2024, the government said, it generated $31.4bn from oil exports; that revenue is more than ten times the amount spent on fuel subsidies.
The government’s critics say most of the country’s 36 million people have yet to see the benefits of living in a country blessed with natural wealth.
“Ordinary Angolans are not benefitting from the country’s natural resources wealth because of high levels of corruption,” Candero said.
“And, as you see in all rich natural resources countries in Africa, particularly where this exploitation is happening, the people live in misery.”
Shops are looted in the Kalemba 2 district of Luanda on July 28, during a general strike in the taxi sector declared for three days to protest against the rising prices of fuel [AFP]
He does not accept the justification that President Lourenco gave in an interview following the protests, that Angola’s comparatively low fuel prices justify the reduction in subsidies. The government has also pointed out that the discounted prices have attracted illicit cross-border traders from neighbouring countries.
Candero insists this is no justification for increasing fuel prices. He blames the status quo on decades of mismanagement by the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party and believes there are other means of bringing public spending under control.
“If the government really wants to cut spending, it should start by cutting spending on superfluous goods and services, extravagant perks for high public officeholders and stop running up debt to buy fleets of luxury cars, trips with numerous entourages, each person with extra perks,” Candero said.
‘Keep goods cheap’
Attiya Waris, a development expert based at the University of Nairobi, has called on Angola’s government to reconsider the reduction of subsidies.
“Fuel subsidies are important in Angola as they keep goods cheap. The government needs to make sure that any change in fuel prices does not affect movement and the cost of the basket of goods [for] people in the country,” said Waris, who reported to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in February this year as an independent expert on the effects of foreign debt on human rights in Angola.
In her report, Waris, who is Kenyan, warns that the subsidy cuts could push up food price inflation and negatively affect vulnerable groups. She points out that the price of basic staples like eggs had already increased by 400 percent.
The report recommends that the government conduct a comprehensive assessment of the economic and social impacts of cutting fuel subsidies and urges it to seek alternative support mechanisms to mitigate the negative impact it may have on low-income households.
World Bank researchers have also backed up Waris’s findings. They point out that removing subsidies could deepen poverty and inequality and may have dire consequences for specific sectors, such as fishing and agriculture; not to mention that it could lead to a nutritional crisis.
“To mitigate these effects, subsidies should be gradually eliminated and paired with targeted support for specific producers, cash transfers for affected households, and public awareness campaigns about the benefits of subsidy reform,” an article published in May on the World Bank blog site reads.
The authors point out, however, that fuel subsidies have drawbacks, too, including disproportionately benefitting wealthier households, straining public finances, limiting investments in physical and human capital and promoting the over-consumption of fossil fuels.
Angolan anti-riot police officers stand in formation as protesters gather in Luanda on July 26 during a protest over high living costs [Julio Pacheco Ntela/AFP]
‘The fight will continue’
The government’s handling of the subsidy reforms has been widely criticised, especially after the crackdown on protesters.
Human Rights Watch accused police of using excessive force after they fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters on July 12 during the first round of protests against the reduction of subsidies.
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said the use of force was part of a broader trend of security force problems in Angola. She cited a protest in 2023 by 400 women traders in Luanda, which was met with tear gas and police beatings.
When Lourenco was elected for a second term in August 2022, Human Rights Watch made a series of recommendations to place human rights at the centre of his government’s policies, including investigating repeated allegations of rights violations by Angola’s state security forces, such as summary executions, excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, and arbitrary detentions.
“Angolans should be able to peacefully protest government policies without being met with excessive force and other violations of their basic rights,” Budoo-Scholtz said in a statement last month.
Despite the criticisms, President Lourenco on Friday praised the police for “acting within the scope of their duties”.
In a national address, he reminded Angolans that this year marks five decades of independence, nearly half of which were marked by civil war. “[We] cannot accept or tolerate any more pain and mourning among Angolans,” he said.
He ended his address with the words: “Long live Angola.”
Meanwhile, Candero and other civil society groups feel nowhere near as triumphant.
Overnight, transport costs have doubled to about 4,000 kwanza ($4.36) a day for workers who rely on public transport such as minibus taxes, exceeding the daily wages of 53 percent of Angolans, who earn less than $3.65 per day, and 31 percent who live on less than $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.
Candero said it is almost inevitable that the rising costs of living will lead to more protests.
And with economically desperate people out in the streets, this can also lead to looting, observers note.
“Some people do not agree with destruction of businesses or other public goods. Others think that causing economic and financial consequences is a payback to the government that [harms many] by allowing corruption,” Candero said.
“For others, especially young people from poor suburbs, the fight will continue until the improvement of their social conditions, especially hunger reduction.
“These were only symptoms. Until we deal with the root causes, these demonstrations will never stop. This is no longer a taxi strike. It is the cry of a hungry people for a piece of bread and for some dignity.”
