Lisbon, July 30, 2025 (Lusa) - Angolan analysts believe that the violent protests that took place on Monday and Tuesday in Luanda were predictable given the deterioration in living conditions.

For economist and journalist Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, who described the looting and violence as "reprehensible and unjustified from any point of view", what happened "did not come out of nowhere".

“They were really predictable given the deterioration in the living conditions of Angolans... given the social conditions in which people live, any spark can have consequences and can cause the powder keg to explode,” he told Lusa.

The violent protests coincided with a taxi drivers’ strike and demonstrations in support of more affordable living called for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the Angolan capital.

At least four people died and more than 500 were arrested following protests that began on Monday in Luanda, according to the spokesman for the Angolan Police General Command, Mateus Rodrigues.

Political analyst Albino Pikasi, also speaking to Lusa, said that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA, in power since independence in 1975) had “released its control of the situation”.

The protests “are happening because the Angolan people are experiencing severe hunger,” he said.

In this regard, Carlos Rosado de Carvalho highlights the economic indicators: “Poverty and unemployment have risen, and even among the employed, wages are falling every day, the purchasing power of wages is falling every day, and, therefore, an opportunity arose for this (…) to happen.”

“Angola’s economy has slowed relative to population growth over the past ten years, so this outcome was (…) predictable,” he added.

The economist pointed to the images available of the protests showing young people.

“We can see from the images that it is very young people who are participating in these events. Anyway, the unemployment rate among young people is over 50%, but (...), I repeat, these things are reprehensible, they are difficult to explain, but they exist, they appear for a reason, they are the result of something that had already been manifesting itself in Angolan society,” he stressed.

Carlos Rosado de Carvalho finds the lack of police on the streets at the beginning of the strike strange.

“I have some doubts about exactly what is happening and, above all, about the reaction of the authorities and the forces of law and order. I find it strange that no one was on the streets. The police apparently did not reinforce policing, as far as we could see. Now, I wonder whether the authorities recognised the full significance of the events and the strike. Could it be that the authorities chose to let things run their course so that they would then have a justification for greater repression?‘ he asked.

’It’s notable that, in the initial phase, people were able to act without any police surveillance, isn’t it?" he continued.

Albino Pikasi sees the protests as “an expression of the population’s desire for change in the ruling party’s governance.”

The political analyst pointed out that the minimum wage in Angola is 70,000 kwanzas (€67) and asked: “How can an African family, which is usually large, with four, five or six children, live on €68? How is that possible?”

Carlos Rosado de Carvalho believes that the entire process of withdrawing fuel subsidies was and is “poorly done”.

“People are doing this very badly. But this is the way forward. We must proceed this way, because the government highly subsidises fuel, energy and water, and the budget cannot cope,” he said.

What the government should do, he argued, is improve public transport, for example.

Albino Pikasi advocated measures to mitigate the withdrawal of subsidies, but stressed above all that there should be dialogue.

“It is absolutely necessary that this continues. Now, we must do it differently; we must do it with dialogue, with good communication, and with transparency. For example, people say the government will have saved 700 million euros at the end of the subsidies.

“Now, the government should say exactly how much it has saved and where the money has gone,” he concluded.

EL/ADB // ADB.

Lusa