Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angolan ex President and Africa’s richest woman on Thursday announced her intention to run for the presidency despite her accusations of diverting more than a billion dollars of state money and a freeze of her assets. She denies the allegations as a “witch hunt” aimed at weakening her father José Eduardo’s influence and distracting public opinion from failures under new President Joao Lourenco. Dos Santos holds significant stakes in several important Portuguese firms, including in Eurobic bank, telecoms company NOS, engineering company Efacec, and oil and gas company Galp Energia. When Lourenco succeeded Eduardo in 2017, he started cracking down on his predecessor’s children in state enterprises. José Eduardo had ruled the country for nearly four decades.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 17, 2020 17:03 UTC