Former Angola president Jose Eduardo dos Santos hospitalised

Angola’s former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos is admitted to a hospital in Spain, where he is receiving treatment for an unspecified illness.

A statement issued by the office of President João Lourenço on Friday said his predecessor was in a stable condition in Barcelona, where he has been living after he left the seat of power in 2017.

President Lourenco expressed solidarity with Mr Dos Santos’ condition in a telephone call with the former First Lady.

“Following the information on the deterioration of the health condition of the former President José Eduardo dos Santos, President Lourenço held a telephone conversation with Mrs Ana Paula dos Santos today in a gesture of solidarity,” the presidency said Friday in a statement.

José Gama, a political analyst and editor-in-chief of Clubk, an online Angolan news website, said, “it is believed that he had a respiratory failure. Let’s keep praying for the old man”.

A Portuguese news outlet Jornal de Negocios had earlier reported that the dos Santos’ family members were concerned over his state of health as his condition was “very serious”.

According to the report, the former president is said to have been admitted to the intensive care unit. But Mr Gama said dos Santos, 79, was stable, according to his sources in Spain.

After retiring and handing the reigns in 2017 to President Lourenco, Mr dos Santos left for Spain where he lived for two years and five months, returning to Luanda last year.

He went back to Barcelona in March after a six-month stay in the country.

In May, his daughter, Welwitchea, took to social media to dispel speculation fuelled by a letter that designated the ex-president’s personal doctor as the only one permitted to disclose his health status as “fake”.

The letter, allegedly signed by the man who ruled Angola for 38 years, had also been aired by some media outlets.