Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Angola
Newsline: Angola to close embassy in Canada
Diplomats representing the resource-rich African nation are packing up their heritage building and heading home after 21 years and three ambassadors to Canada. Angola is planning to close its embassy in Ottawa, along with its diplomatic missions in several other countries. The embassy planned to close its doors to the public at the end of October, local staff member Manuel Kingunda confirmed on Oct. 25. After that, embassy staff will continue to do some internal work to wrap things up, while all public inquiries will be answered by the Angolan Embassy in Washington, D.C., he said.
https://www.hilltimes.com/2018/10/31/angola-close-embassy-canada/173879
Newsline: Angola fires diplomats for attending Jerusalem event on eve of US embassy move
Angola fired two senior diplomats after one of them attended an event celebrating the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem last week, state-run media said. Angola’s Foreign Minister Manuel Augusto dismissed João Diogo Fortunato, a senior adviser and the number 2 figure in the Angolan Embassy in Tel Aviv, according to Angolan state-run media. Augusto also fired the director for Africa, Middle East and Regional Organizations in the Luanda foreign ministry, Joaquim do Espírito Santo, who authorized Fortunato’s attendance at the May 13 party in Jerusalem. Fortunato was one of twelve envoys from African countries and one of 33 ambassadors and chargés d’affaires to participate in an event organized by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to celebrate the next day’s US embassy’s relocation from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/angola-fires-diplomats-over-attendance-at-event-for-us-embassy-move/
Newsline: Philippines diplomat’s son alleges sodomy by classmate at school in New Delhi
A Class 5 student of a well-known school in New Delhi has alleged that he was sodomised by his classmate at school. The fathers of both the accused and the victim are diplomats at different embassies in the capital. A case has been registered. The issue surfaced when the victim’s father, who works with the Philippines embassy, contacted South Campus police station to lodge a complaint. The officer told police that his son looked disturbed during his summer vacations. When the worried father questioned his son, he ‘broke down’ and narrated the whole incident alleging sexual assault. The boy also requested his father against reporting the incident to police. Police investigations revealed that the accused is the son of an officer working with the embassy of Angola. The investigators also said that the family of the accused had also attempted to file a complaint. Their statement claimed that it was their son, who was assaulted by the victim. But medical reports did not support it. Police accepted the complaint.
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/delhi-filipino-diplomats-son-alleges-sodomy-by-classmate-school-732415
Newsline: Kenya to open embassy in Angola
The outgoing ambassador of the Republic of Kenya in Angola, Peter Gitau, announced in Luanda the opening soon of the facilities of the embassy of his country in the capital of Angola. With status of non-resident ambassador, Peter Gitau said so to the press after meeting the Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos at Luanda’s Presidential Palace, with whom he discussed aspects of diplomatic, political, economic and social interest under the relations of the existing cooperation between the two countries. “Henceforth, Kenya will have a resident ambassador in Angola and this also was one of the greatest steps achieved during my four-year term while in office.”
Newsline: Rwanda to Open Embassy in Angola
Rwanda will soon open an embassy in Angola to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. This was announced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo, shortly after the Angolan Minister for External Relations, Georges Rebelo Chikoti, met President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro in Kigali. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is the current chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
Newsline: Angola’s Lisbon Embassy windows smashed
Angola’s ambassador to Lisbon said there was no connection between the act of vandalism against the Lisbon embassy early Sunday morning and the current state of relations between the two countries. “We believe this act was just an incident but we have to take care that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again”, Marcos Barrica, told the Angolan news agency Angop. Refusing to come to “any immediate conclusions”, the diplomat said it was “too early to conclude that the reason behind the incident had anything to do with the poorer relations with Portugal”. The embassy services are going to continue to work normally while the police investigate the incident. Estevão Alberto, the embassy press attaché said “paving stones had been thrown against the Avenida da Republica building and windows in the entrance hall and visitor room had been broken”, but the losses had not yet been calculated. The Portuguese government has condemned the “disturbances” on Sunday by “a group of unknown individuals” that caused damage to the building.
http://theportugalnews.com/news/angolas-lisbon-embassy-windows-smashed/29821
Newsline: Angola and Myanmar establish diplomatic relations
Angola and Myanmar in New York signed an accord for the establishment of diplomatic relations. The accord was signed by the ambassadors of Angola and Myanmar to the United Nations Organisation (UNO), Ismael Martins and Kyaw Tin.
Newsline: Chinese embassy dismisses criticism of Angola project
The Chinese embassy in Angola denied a media report, which said that a Chinese–built residential development project in the country is a “ghost town” with large empty estates. A BBC report said on July 2 that a brand-new development project built by China International Trust and Investment Corporation on the outskirts of Luanda, the country’s capital, is “eerily quiet”. Nearly a year since the first batch of 2,800 apartments went on sale, Nova Cidade de Kilamba, the mixed residential development designed to house up to half a million residents, only had 220 houses sold, it said. The embassy’s economic and commercial counselor’s office clarified that construction of the project, divided in three phases, is not yet completed. The first phase of the project is now completed, and sales are very good, an unnamed person at the economic and commercial counselor’s office said, according to the paper. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos pledged in his 2008 presidential campaign to build one million apartments within four years. The newly built satellite city constructed by the Chinese company is “one important step for him to fulfill his election pledge”.
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-07/04/content_15549055.htm
Newsline: East Timor to open embassy in Angola
East Timor plans soon to open an embassy in Angola as part of its efforts to boost ties between the two countries, the country’s business attaché. Elda Ferreira said in Luanda. The diplomat told Angolan news agency Angop that opening the embassy would help to “reinstate privileged historical relations,” between the two countries,,” and noted that the Timorese government had accepted that Angola be included in the delegation of observers of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) that would accompany East Timor’s presidential elections on 17 March. Ferreira said that the Angolan embassy may also be opened in Dili after the legislative elections in East Timor, in June. In response to Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor Angola allowed Timor to open a diplomatic office in Luanda and raised the category of the East Timor Liberation Front’s (Fretilin) representative office to an embassy, whose ambassador was Roque Rodrigues, from 1975 to 1999. The embassy closed in 1999 due to financial difficulties.
http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2012/02/27/east-timor-to-open-embassy-in-angola/
Consular affairs: Angola fails to ease visa rules
Angola has spent an estimated $1 billion to stage this month’s African Nations Cup, but the former Portuguese colony appears to be doing little to help foreign visitors get in. Angola has not eased its byzantine visa regulations for would-be Nations Cup visitors. Accredited journalists are among those who have missed out because the promised Letter of Invitation from the organising committee — necessary to get the treasured visa — was either sent too late or went to the embassy in the wrong country. As for visiting fans, they may as well forget it unless they started planning a long time ago. Normal visa applications can take three months to process, even if the applicant manages to satisfy all criteria (and it’s not always clear what they are). One embassy official in Berne, Switzerland, demanded a swine flu vaccination. When told that previous host nations had been more accommodating, she said proudly: “But this is Angola.” Fans from Zambia are lucky, though – they are the only ones of the 15 visiting teams who do not need visas.
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