22 killed in Angola following fuel hike protests

Thursday, July 31, 2025 - 22 people have been k!lled since Monday, July 28, in Angola following protests against a fuel price hike, the interior minister said, as calm returned to the capital. 

Sporadic gunfire was heard across Luanda and several other cities on Monday and Tuesday, July 29, as people looted shops and clashed with police when violence erupted during a taxi strike. 

Violence erupted on Monday, the first day of a strike called by taxi drivers to protest the July 1 increase in fuel costs in the oil-rich nation where millions live in poverty. 

It was some of the worst unrest in several years in the Portuguese-speaking southern African country, which has been governed by the MPLA party since 1975. 

Sporadic gunfire was heard across Luanda and several other cities on Monday and Tuesday as people looted shops and clashed with police. 

“We regret 22 de@ths, including one police officer,” Interior Minister Manuel Homem told reporters on the sidelines of a Council of Ministers meeting chaired by President Joao Lourenco. 

Nearly 200 people were injured in the violence, he said, and more than 1,200 people had been arrested. 

The unrest was marked by massive looting in which people raided supermarkets and warehouses, making off with food and other supplies. Sixty-six shops were damaged, Homem said. 

The streets of Luanda were tense and largely empty on Wednesday, although there were some queues outside petrol stations and shops. There was a heavy presence of security forces. 

Many shops remained closed, but public transport had slowly resumed in some areas after a two-day standstill. 

With the protests having spread outside the capital, a statement after the ministers’ meeting said vandalism and rioting had “triggered a climate of widespread insecurity”. 

It said “elements with criminal intentions” had turned the demonstration into a “threat to security”. 

Police in the southern city of Lubango confirmed separately that a police officer had shot and k!lled a 16-year-old on Tuesday. 

The teenager was allegedly part of a group attempting to invade the headquarters of the ruling MPLA party, a statement said. 

The strike was the latest in a series of protests this month after the price of fuel was hiked from 300 to 400 kwanzas ($0.33 to $0.43) a litre on July 1.