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Angola opposition wants clarity over 'absent' dos Santos' health

Angola opposition wants clarity over 'absent' dos Santos' health

Health

The opposition in Angola has called for an official communication on the health status of outgoing President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

According to the AFP news agency, the 74-year-old leader has been out of the country for a little over two weeks, prompting the calls.

“We are all concerned about the lack of official information on the health of the president,” a senior opposition leader, Rafael Savimbi, told the AFP.

Dos Santos was at the receiving end of a fake news prank that suggested that he had died in Spain. It took the intervention of his daughter who heads the country’s oil firm to rebut the falsehood.

“Someone has gone so low as to invent information about the death of a man in order to create confusion and turmoil in Angolan politics,” she wrote on her Instagram account.

#fakenews #folha8 #makaangola, publicam notícias falsas sobre saúde #PRAngola

— Isabel Dos Santos (@isabelaangola) May 13, 2017

AFP further stated that Dos Santos has been in Spain since May 2 receiving medical treatment. He is not the only African leader about who false information has been peddled. Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari and ex-Ghanaian president Jerry John Rawlings have all been victims.

Dos Santos earlier this year confirmed that he will step down as President after almost four decades in charge. He will however remain leader of the ruling party.