By Princewill Ubani · Published
Research ID: PA-ART-angola-2020-independence-day-protests
Angola's 45th Independence Day Was Marked by a Deadly Crackdown
Angola marked 45 years of independence from Portugal on November 11, 2020, the same day police opened fire on a demonstration in Luanda demanding local elections and better living conditions. Officers shot and killed Inocêncio de Matos, a 26-year-old engineering student, as he tried to reach a rally at Largo 1º de Maio after security forces had sealed off the main routes into the square.
The shooting was not an isolated incident that day. Human Rights Watch documented officers using live ammunition, tear gas and police dogs to disperse the crowd, and said two well-known activists, Nito Alves and Laurinda Goveia, were beaten badly enough to require hospital treatment while a third, Luaty Beirão, was arrested. A police spokesman confirmed that a protester had been shot dead but would not say whether an officer was responsible.
The protests were part of a broader wave of unrest that had built through 2020 over unemployment, the cost of living and repeated delays to municipal elections President João Lourenço had promised. Angolan authorities had already detained more than 100 people at a similar demonstration weeks earlier, on October 24, and rights groups said the government’s response escalated rather than eased as the anniversary approached.
Five years later, no officer had been charged over de Matos’s death. Angola’s Services for Criminal Investigations opened an inquiry but, according to Amnesty International, had by 2025 interviewed only witnesses connected to the victims, not the police involved. “He did not commit any crime or pose a risk when shot dead,” Amnesty’s deputy regional director, Vongai Chikwanda, said. “He was killed for attempting to exercise his right to freedom of assembly.”
Sources
- “Angola: Police Fire on Peaceful Protesters”, Human Rights Watch.
- “Angola: No accountability five years after protestor killing”, Amnesty International.
- “Rights group urges justice in killing of Angolan protestor, five years on”, JURIST.