Youth activists sentenced in Angola for anti-government demonstrations

• Seventeen activists were arrested in Luanda last June after an organized reading of Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Democracy, a text promoting non-violent resistance.
• The group has been sentenced to between two and eight-and-a-half years in jail after conviction on charges of rebellion, planning mass civil disobedience, and producing fake passports.
• President José Eduardo dos Santos has been in power for 37 years, and despite his pledge to step down in 2018, rampant inflation, public spending cuts, a public health crisis, and human rights infringements have increased anti-government sentiment in the lead-up to elections.

Read more:
“Angola Sends a Rapper and 16 Activists to Prison for Plotting Rebellion” (VICE News)
“Seventeen activists sentenced for rebelling against Angolan government” (Reuters)
“Angola: 17 youth activists jailed for anti-dos Santos rebellion” (Africanews with AFP)

(Image Credit: via Africanews)