A court in Angola's southwestern province of Namibe sent a journalist to prison without due process over his coverage of a sexual harassment scandal that implicated the province's top judicial official, according to local journalists and news reports. Judge Manuel Araujo sentenced Armando José Chicoca, a freelancer who reports for US government-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) and private Angolan newspapers such as Folha 8, Agora, and O Apostolado, to one year in prison and a fine of 200,000 kwanza (US$2,100), according to news reports.

Soldiers patrolled the Angolan capital Luanda on Sunday as Angolans watched to see if plans for a Monday mass protest against the 31-year rule of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos would materialise. Since last month, rumours have been circulating on the Internet of north Africa-style protests scheduled to begin on 7 March.

A large-scale demolition in Lubango, capital of Huíla province, carried out by the government of Angola, has already left in its wake over 5,000 displaced people in the southwest of the country, Global Voices reports.

The Angola Monitor covers the politics, economics, development, democracy and human rights of Angola. It is published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) and is available in both English and Portuguese. This issue covers President dos Santos’ state visit to South Africa, the meeting of the general secretaries of liberation movements in Luanda and the 2011 budget and increased investment in industry and health. It also covers calls for more transparency in the oil industry, cases of rape during the continued mass expulsions into DRC and growing concerns about violence against reporters.

The Angolan government is preparing to renew efforts to eradicate polio with support from global partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has made polio eradication its top priority. Angola succeeded in stamping out polio for three consecutive years at the beginning of the century, but a strain of the virus prevalent in India reappeared in 2005 and has since spread to the neighbouring countries of Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.

Angola has denied that mercenaries from the country were operating in Ivory Coast, following reports that defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo's camp had recruited hired guns from Angola and Liberia. The statement came after the United Nations' top peacekeeper, Alain Le Roy, said last week the UN had confirmed that Gbagbo forces were working with foreign mercenaries in their bid to gain the upper hand in the political stand-off between Gbagbo and presidential rival Alassane Ouattara.

Citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) expelled from neighbouring Angola continued to arrive in their country of origin this month, with many reporting that they were subjected to mistreatment, including sexual violence, the United Nations humanitarian office said on 29 December. Some 1,355 expellees have arrived in DRC’s Bas-Congo and Kasai provinces since 11 December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos at the end of 2010 gave a state-of-the-nation address to the citizenry in Luanda, a move analysts say was doubtlessly informed by the looming 2012 general election. Dos Santos, who has ruled Angola for 30 years, focused his end-year speech on the polls. Under the terms of the new constitution which was approved early this year, dos Santos will not face a direct presidential election. He will instead be automatically elected from the top of legislative poll lists.

On 12 November 2010, over 150 people marched from the Angolan Embassy to the Home Office in London in protest at the death of Jimmy Mubenga during a deportation. Campaigners from the Angolan community first delivered a letter to the Angolan Embassy to call on the authorities to intervene. The march, led by the family and friends of Jimmy Mubenga, then marched to the Home Office. Although marchers had only been given permission to use the pavements, the sheer volume of people meant that very soon they took to the roads and were eventually given a police escort on a circuitous route to the Home Office.

The Chinese government will provide 60 annual scholarships for Angolans wishing to study in China, the Angolan Ambassador to China, Joao Bernardo, said here Sunday in an interview with the country's News Agency (ANGOP). The diplomat disclosed this while appraising the visit to Angola of China's Vice President, Xi Jinping. According to the ambassador, as part of the agreement signed Friday, China had raised the scholarships from 20 to 60.

Polio was on the brink of eradication in Angola at the end of 2004, when the country had experienced three consecutive years without new cases. Then, in 2005, the wild poliovirus reappeared here. Angola now has one of the biggest polio caseloads in Africa.

A mission from the International Monetary Fund, led by Seán Nolan, visited Luanda during 1 -11 November 2010 to conduct policy discussions for the fourth review under Angola’s 27-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF. The SBA was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on 23 November 2009 and provides for the disbursement of SDR 858.9 million (about US$1.4 billion) over the course of the arrangement. Following the visit, Nolan said implementation of the government’s stabilisation and reform program has been broadly as envisaged, with budgetary outlays tightly contained.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has launched a national programme to improve living conditions in the oil-rich country's informal settlements and slums, local media said Tuesday. According to a UNICEF report published in June, 87 per cent of Angola's urban population lives in shanty towns and just 42 per cent of people have access to water, down from 60 per cent in 2001.

An Angolan minister has told the BBC that a convoy carrying Chinese mine workers was attacked in the region of Cabinda this week. He said that two soldiers guarding the workers, contracted by Angola's state oil company Sonangol, were killed. A faction of the Cabinda separatist movement Flec has said it carried out Monday's attack.

Following investigations by Maka, Rafael Marques de Morais writes of the role of ‘foreign investment in broadening, consolidating and institutionalising corrupt dealings’ with Angola’s political leaders. Marques de Morais stresses that: ‘It has become normal for foreign investors to ignore anti-corruption laws thanks to the impunity that they enjoy through their association with the regime’s most corrupt and abusive figures.’

A senior United Nations official has urged the national authorities in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate reports that women were raped when large numbers of people were expelled from Angola and forced to return to the DRC recently. 'I call upon the authorities of both countries to investigate these allegations and to proceed in compliance with relevant legislation,' said Margot Wallström, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict.

The Angola Monitor covers the politics, economics, development, democracy and human rights of Angola. It is published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). This issue covers Angola's progress in measures of poverty and governance, forced evictions and housing demolitions, international cooperation and the latest economic developments.

Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation.

Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation. 'We are concerned by the fact that the victims all work for critical or opposition news media,' Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said in the letter, sent on 28 October. 'The level of violence is very disturbing. The physical safety of journalists is in danger. We are alarmed by the gravity of these attacks.'

Luíz Araújo

Rafael Marques de Moraes