Angola’s president, one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders, announced on Friday that he will step down in 2018.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos gave no reason why he is leaving the post he has held since 1979 and gave no indication as to his preferred successor.
"I took the decision to leave political activity in 2018," Dos Santos, 73, said in a speech to his ruling MPLA party's decision-making body. He did not elaborate.
The country is the second largest oil exporter in Africa after Nigeria and the fall in crude oil prices has hit Angola’s economy. Revenue from oil comprises more than 90% of foreign exchange revenues.
Angola is now in talks with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund about the possibility of financial assistance.
Following Portugal’s departure in 1975, the country spiralled into a civil war which lasted 27 years, ending in 2002. An economic boom backed by oil helped rebuild the country’s devastated infrastructure and led the way for Angola to become Africa’s third largest economy.
At the same time, however, Angola is ranked among the world’s most corrupt countries.
Angola holds its next parliamentary election in 2017 and the leader of the winning party will then become president.
MPLA leader Dos Santos was re-appointed to another five-year term in 2012 after his party won a landslide win.
Some analysts believe that he has been grooming his vice president, Manuel Vicente, for future president while others are placing bets that Dos Santos the younger will succeed. Jose Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos is currently the head of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund.
Dos Santos, a Soviet-educated former petroleum engineer, is Africa's second longest ruling leader after Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
