Day: June 1, 2021

Luanda – Angola Tuesday received 100,620 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, making it the third African country to receive a batch of the manufacturer’s vaccines.

The vaccines were acquired as part of the Covax initiative, taking into account the conditions required for conservation in ultra cold and handling chambers.

In this regard, the Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, said that these vaccines are directed to taxi drivers, bus drivers and people from the strategic industry, who are also part of the first stage of vaccination.

For the vaccination process, Angola has already acquired six million doses of Sputnik V and received, via the Covx initiative and the Chinese government, 824,000 doses from Astrazeneca and Sinopharma.

By the last 24 hours, Angola had vaccinated 1,7 million citizens since the start of the process in March 2020.

Of these, 706,173 have received the first dose and 294,577 the second dose.

The vaccination plan underway aims to immunise around 15.7 million Angolans over the age of 16, and reduce mortality and the number of cases of Covid-19, as well as allowing for the resumption of normal economic and social activities.

In Angola, the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 started last March. In the first phase, it covered health professionals, defence and security forces, the elderly, people with comorbidities, teachers, people over 40 years old, among other exposed people.

In the country, the first two positive cases of Covid-19 were announced on 21 March 2020.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Germany will host a new set of Libyan peace talks on June 23 in Berlin, with Libya’s transitional government due to attend, the foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

“The next steps needed for a sustainable stabilization of the country will be discussed” at the conference, said the ministry.

Talks will mainly focus on preparations for national elections planned for December 24 as well as the withdrawal of foreign troops and mercenaries from Libya.

They will also look at the creation of unified security forces for the North African country.

“The conference is an expression of the continued international support for the stabilization of Libya,” said a German ministry spokeswoman.

“The international community remains ready to continue its close and constructive support of the UN led peace process in Libya.”

Berlin hosted the first round of the UN-sponsored talks on January 19, 2020, gathering leaders of warring Libyan sides as well as the presidents of Russia, Turkey, France and Egypt to bid for peace in the conflict-torn country.

At that conference, world leaders committed to ending all foreign meddling in the conflict and to uphold a weapons embargo.

Since then, a formal truce last October has led to the creation of an interim government tasked with unifying Libya’s divided institutions, launching reconstruction efforts and preparing for December polls.

But the UN envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, last month assessed that progress on issues such as the withdrawal of foreign mercenaries and reopening of the road connecting the country’s east and west had stalled.

According to the UN, more than 20,000 foreign mercenaries and military personnel are still in Libya. They include Turkish, Russian, Sudanese and Chadian mercenaries.

Unlike the Russian mercenaries who supported the authorities in the east of the country, Turkey says its troops sent to Tripoli were sent under a bilateral agreement with the government, implying that they are not affected by a request for foreign troops to leave.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, demanded Tuesday in Luanda, “radical changes” in the registry of personnel of all the National Defence and Security bodies.

Speaking at the swearing in ceremony of the new members of the Government, João Lourenço demanded from the new Minister of State and Head of the Security House of the President of the Republic, Francisco Pereira Furtado, courage and will to change “radically” the methodology of control of the security bodies in the country.

“Just like in the barracks, in parade, when you call for the soldier, the soldier responds present. One of his missions is to call for the personnel so that they all respond present”, he said.

João Lourenço reminded that all those who receive salaries from the State should necessarily be present.

“If that doesn’t happen, we can immediately conclude that we are facing a ghost staff”, he said.

Cleaning up the “ghosts

According to the Angolan Head of State, one of the tasks of the new Minister of State and Head of the Security House will be “to clean up all ghost personnel” that exist in the defence and security bodies.

According to the statesman, the latest events in Luanda show the outflow of public money from banks, in a fraudulent way, which are fattening the “crab”, in a reference to the investigation operation that made it possible to seize millions of dollars and kwanzas, as well as thousands of euros, real estate, vehicles and other goods.

Within the framework of “Operation Crab”, whose investigations are ongoing, the major of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), Pedro Lussati, was arrested, while several general officers, with high responsibility positions, in the Security House of the President of the Republic, were dismissed, in the last days.

In this sense, the President of the Executive Power defended the need to put an end to such harmful practices, also counting on the collaboration of the whole society.

Transparency and crime prevention

In this sense, the Angolan Head of State defended greater rigour and transparency of the bank managers in the management of the public treasury.

“The behaviour and procedures of the banks are not normal, we need to change,” warned the Head of State, who demanded stronger and more forceful action from the Central Bank and the Financial Information Unit.

The measures are not only to punish the banks but, above all, to set up a mechanism that guarantees the prevention of crime”, he stressed.

Inauguration

Besides Francisco Pereira Furtado, sworn in as Minister of State and Head of the Security House of the President of the Republic, João Pereira Massano was also sworn in as Head of the Military Intelligence Service.

Paulo Dinis Luvambano was also sworn in as Cabinda’s Vice-Governor for Technical Services and Infrastructure and Angelino Mungila Kissonde, as Malanje’s Vice-Governor for Technical Services and Infrastructure.

Likewise, Augusto da Silva Cunha was sworn in today, at the Presidential Palace, as Angola’s ambassador to the Russian Federation.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Malanje- The Minister of Social Action, Family and Women Promotion, Faustina Alves, on Tuesday in Malanje, reiterated the government’s commitment to create incorporated programmes and policies tending to meet children’s needs.

According to the Government minister, violence against children tends to increase, despite the assumption of the 11 commitments of the child, hence the need to adopt permanent mechanisms to combat it and to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Speaking at the central act of the 1st of June, International Children’s Day, she said that the Government, with the advocacy of the National Children’s Institute (INAC), created, in June 2020, the SOS-Childhood service with the aim of receiving complaints of cases involving violence against minors, in person and through the anonymous and free phone line 15015.

Faustina Inglês said that up until the first quarter of this year the country had recorded 195,640 reports related to abandonment of children, accusations of witchcraft, child exploitation, running away from parenthood, murder, kidnapping, child trafficking, sexual abuse and other practices.

Meanwhile, he stressed that there were hidden cases of violence against minors, not reported for fear of retaliation, mainly by women who fear losing their spouses, out of shame, lack of culture and ignorance, hence the need for a continuous fight against the evils that affect children, with the female sex being the most affected, with a percentage of 52.3 percent of cases, according to INAC statistics.

Without giving details, Minister Faustina Alves explained that, as part of the fight against violence against children, the national prevention campaign will run from 16 March 2021 to 16 March 2022.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Cuito – The rehabilitation of the dam on Cuquema river, in Chicala commune, paralysed for over 30 years, may contribute to the improvement of the population living quality.

The dam supplied, until the 80s, about 10 megawatts (MW) to the commune of Chicala and the Capolo jail (which houses more than 300 prisoners).

In this regard, the Cuito municipal administrator, Abel Guerra Paulo, said that, unfortunately, the lack of funding made it impossible to rehabilitate the infrastructure of capital importance for the socio-economic development of the region.

The official, who was speaking to the press at the end of a visit to see the infrastructures and ongoing works in the province, stressed that the provincial government intends to rehabilitate the project.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The Attorney General of the Republic, Hélder Pitta Groz, announced Tuesday that the Angolan judicial authorities have resorted to international cooperation in order to help locate and seize new assets uncovered by “Operation Crab.

As part of the investigations into this operation, millions of dollars and kwanzas have already been seized in Angola, as well as thousands of euros, property, vehicles and other goods.

The major of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), Pedro Lussaty, former financier of the music band of the President’s Security House, has so far been arrested.

In the same way, several general officers with high responsibility positions in the President’s Security House have been removed from office in the last few days as part of the operation.

According to the Attorney General, it is not yet possible to quantify all the assets under investigation, as there is a possibility that some are registered outside the country.

“There are assets that are here in Angola and others outside the country. We have already set international cooperation in motion to help us identify and locate these assets, so that they can be seized,” Pitta Gróz said.

According to the magistrate, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of a meeting on the phenomenon of vandalisation of public property, it is still premature to talk about the timeframe for the outcome of this case, and investigations may be delayed due to the fact that there are goods outside the country.

He said, on the other hand, that the Attorney General’s Office has not issued, so far, any exit ban to the officers allegedly involved in the case, stressing, however, that, as military personnel, they cannot leave Angola without authorisation, under the Military Law in force.

Hélder Pitta Gróz suggested the possibility that there may be others implicated and collaborators of Major Pedro Lussaty. “I believe that he did not do it alone. There may be someone else”, he declared.

He reaffirmed that the Attorney General’s Office, in partnership with the security services and the Criminal Investigation Services (SIC) continue to investigate the case, in order to clarify how various assets were constituted by Major Lussaty, saying that there have already been some advances in the investigations.

Remember that, under the Constitution of the Republic, every citizen enjoys the right of presumption of innocence and can only be considered guilty after being sentenced.

Source: Angola Press News Agency