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The funeral procession in Angola
Photo: JULIO PACHECO NTELA / AFP
After a heated argument between the government and parts of the family, Angola bid farewell to long-standing former President José Eduardo dos Santos with a state funeral.
The presidents of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as the head of state of the former colonial power Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, attended the funeral service for the controversial ex-head of state in Luanda on Sunday.
Dos Santos died in Barcelona in July at the age of 79.
He was Angola's head of state from 1979 to 2017 without ever being directly elected.
His supporters revere dos Santos as the "architect of peace" because a 27-year civil war ended under his rule in 2002.
At the same time, however, he is accused of embezzling large sums of money during his nearly four-decade rule in Angola in order to favor his family and close associates.
Although he himself had been appointed by dos Santos as his successor, after taking office in 2017, President João Lourenço launched a large-scale anti-corruption campaign against relatives and other close confidants of his former mentor.
However, Dos Santos himself remained protected from criminal prosecution thanks to a number of laws passed during his reign.
Since 2019 he has been living in Spain.
After a dispute between parts of the family and the government in Luanda, a Spanish court finally ordered dos Santos' body to be transferred to Angola.
The state funeral for dos Santos was overshadowed by the dispute over the winner of last Wednesday's parliamentary elections.
After counting 97 percent of the votes, Lourenço's MPLA party won the election with 51.07 percent, but the opposition Unita is demanding an independent review.
The election commission announced on Sunday that it would “start counting the final results”.
In Angola, the strongest party in parliament automatically appoints the president.
dop/AFP