Angola: Unprecedented victories achieved by civil society

Civil society organisations in Angola gave a lesson of citizenship last Saturday, courageously marching to say “Don’t Push Down My House”.
The demonstration finally and peacefully took place in the coastal city of Benguela. Despite of the ban announced by the provincial government, the march managed to break the silence and voice the protest against the brutal house demolitions and forced land evictions that have become a regular occurrence in Angola in the last years.
The local government still tried to hinder the march, by organising a public activity at the same time in the final point, but that did not discourage the demonstrators who simply changed their destination.
“It was one more step built by civil society in this long journey. It is a clear evidence of civil society’s fundamental role and which cannot be denied at any time”, says the blog Quintas de Debate, by OMUNGA, Christian Aid’s partner.
Although against the Constitution, protests to denounce human rights violations are prohibited in Angola and any kind of similar act are repressed and its leaders intimidated (OMUNGA had organised initially the march for March 25th but it faced a compact barrier of riot police).

The last major wave of demolitions and evictions happened in March in Lubango (Huila province capital), killing seven people and displacing more than 25,000 people. Many of these citizens have been transferred to Tchavola, in the outskirts of Lubango, a place with no water, sanitation, schools or transportation. The situation is still that of a human-made humanitarian emergency.
However, in another unprecedented move, the Government recently apologised to the victims of this violence, and promised not to hold any more demolitions and evictions in the same way. However, civil society expects more demolitions and evictions in Angola in June.

Congratulations to our partners – Omunga, ACC, SOS Habitat, AJPD, IECA and others – which in diverse ways and at great personal risk achieved these two victories!
Congratulations also to the victims of evictions and demolitions who have been fighting as they can against the abuses.

Finally, congratulations to the many civil society actors and alliances in Angola and internationally: there has been a strong movement to condemn the Lubango catastrophe and support the march. We have no doubts that the visibility and wide solidarity were contributing factors.