Strengthening cooperation in trade, economy and culture, as well as current international and regional matters were top issues in talks between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President João Lourenço of Angola at the Kremlin on 4 April.

Today’s Angola proves the African proverb that all manner of knives are brought out the day an elephant is killed. Pity is that the party that should have all Angolans in attendance is for a select few. On the high table, surrounded by members of his family and a few cronies made up of generals and sundry leeches, is His Excellency President Eduardo dos Santos and his eldest daughter, Isabel.

KILOMBO UK is asking all justice loving Africans, and friends of Africa, to take action to secure the unconditional release of young social justice activists arrested and detained in Angola since June 2015 for reading a book about democracy.

A committed revolutionary from his youth, Risquet led the Cuban delegation in the talks that resulted in the withdrawal of the apartheid army from southern Angola and the liberation of neighboring Namibia under settler-colonial occupation for a century. His last visit to Africa was in 2012 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah’s death.

State repression in the Southern African nation has reached ridiculous lows. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ government appears to be paranoid. It boggles the mind how long this surreal state of affairs will go on.