Angola President Dos Santos to step down in 2018

Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has announced he will step down in 2018.

Angola's longest serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos announces he will step down in 2018 after 39 years pic.twitter.com/NBCcUO32vJ

— NBS Television (@nbstv) March 11, 2016

Speaking during a congress of the ruling party, the long serving African leader said he will end his political career in the next two years.

Angola is due to hold its general elections in August 2017.

The southern African state is rich in diamonds, which fuelled a 27-year civil war in the country.

In 2001, Dos Santos had announced that he would not seek office in the next presidential elections which were then abolished under the country’s new constitution.

But critics have accused the president of being authoritarian and his government has been accused of committing human rights abuses.

Dos Santos is Africa’s second longest-serving leader and has ruled the continent’s second largest oil exporter since 1979.