On the third day of the taxi drivers’ strike in Luanda, the Angola government confirmed 22 dead and almost 200 injured in three days of violent clashes between the population and the National Police. Manuel Homem, the interior minister of Angola, also confirmed that 1200 people had been detained. The minister also asked the population to trust the institutions, from the executive to the police, and ensured that the situation was stable.
But dozens of images shared by Angolans on social networks appear to show a different scenario since the taxi drivers started and Wednesday was no exception. The images are guessed that the number of dead can be much higher, because, as the new newspaper, edited in Luanda, has written, the population accused police officers of triggering over people indiscriminately.
In one of the videos, widely shared on the Tiktok network and via WhatsApp, comes a woman who seems to flee the police with her son. It is hit by shots and ends up falling to the floor. The same video then shows the bloody body and a child next to her, the same with whom she ran on a dirt road.
The video seems to have been made in the Luanda region and several interveners speak Portuguese, also pointing to another body extended to the floor. The content, which has not been independently verified, is also being shared on the social network X – former Twitter – as an example of the police repression of these days in Angola.
In another video, a man who films a black Toyota, with the symbol of the quick intervention police at the driver’s door, is the target of shots, practically at close range, then showing how he was injured around his neck. Man repeats several times the expression “my God,” as he realizes the amount of blood, sitting on the floor.
The repression of the National Police has been denounced by Angolan activists and citizens since Monday. Much of the press and state media, such as Angola’s public television, consulted by CNN Portugal at the end of Wednesday, do not mention protests.
