Paris, France – The situation of human rights in Angola and Mozambique is still of concern, but the election of the new president in Angola gives hope with promises to combat corruption and state mismanagement.
The Human Rights Watch report 2018 the organisation has just released covers 90 countries, including four Portuguese speaking countries – Angola, Brazil, Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique.
The report said that Angola’s new president after almost 40 years of the “repressive regime” of José Eduardo dos Santos, and that despite the elections going off peacefully, there were “severe restrictions” on the freedom of expression and “repression and censorship” by the government.
The new president says he will govern for all Angolans and combat two of the country’s biggest problems: corruption and mismanagement of public money, HRW said.
The organisation also stressed, however, that the country continues to see abuses and excessive use of force by the different security units, intimidation and arbitrary detentions of participants in peaceful demonstrations.
Turning to Mozambique, Human Rights Watch said that despite the ceasefire signed in December 2016 by the two sides in conflict, the crimes by armed groups and the human rights violations are still unpunished.
The organisation quotes the Mozambican Human Rights League to tell that the government security forces kidnapped or executed at least 83 people in Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia provinces, between November 2015 and September 2016, that have not been investigated either.
The report also denounced the continued attacks on albino children and adults, as well as delays in the law that decriminalises sexual orientation, recalling that the law has been waiting to be approved for more than two years.
Prison conditions are also highlighted since although they were designed for 8,000 inmates, they currently hold about 18,000.
