He was 79 and died after an extended sickness, the federal government stated in an announcement on its Fb web page.
The announcement stated Mr dos Santos, who dominated Angola for nearly 40 years from 1979, was “a statesman of nice historic scale who ruled … the Angolan nation by way of very troublesome occasions”.
Former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has died in a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, the Angolan authorities stated.
Mr dos Santos had largely lived in Barcelona since stepping down in 2017.
Angola’s present head of state, Joao Lourenco, introduced 5 days of nationwide mourning beginning on Friday, when the nation’s flag will fly at half-mast and public occasions are cancelled.
Mr dos Santos got here to energy 4 years after Angola gained independence from Portugal and have become enmeshed within the Chilly Warfare as a proxy battlefield.
His political journey spanned single-party Marxist rule in post-colonial years and a democratic system of presidency adopted in 2008.
He voluntarily stepped down when his well being started failing.
In public, Mr dos Santos was unassuming and even appeared shy at occasions.
However he was a shrewd operator behind the scenes.
He stored a decent grip on the Seventeenth-century presidential palace in Luanda, the southern African nation’s Atlantic capital, by distributing Angola’s wealth between his military generals and political rivals to make sure their loyalty.
He demoted anybody he perceived to be gaining a degree of recognition that would threaten his command.
Mr dos Santos’ biggest foe for greater than 20 years was Jonas Savimbi, chief of the Unita rebels whose post-independence guerrilla insurgency fought within the bush aimed to oust Mr dos Santos’ In style Motion for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
The MPLA had monetary help from the Soviet Union and navy help from Cuba in its warfare towards Unita.
Mr Savimbi was backed by the USA and South Africa.
