Drive out of the centre of Luanda, down the coastal highway heading south from the Angolan capital. Swing past the fort built by Portuguese colonialists on the hill above, and beyond the luxury shopping mall.
Just before the road heads inland there is a lagoon, separated from the sea by a long spit of land. This is Areia Branca, named for its white sands. Until the summer of 2013, it was home to a thriving fishing community of 3,000 families.
Now there is no trace of their houses, only sand, a pile of gravel, egrets, a bulldozer and a police post. It’s all gone. Nothing is left, said Pedro Alexandrino, standing near the site of his former home. Now we are living in horrible conditions.
Many of Areia Branca’s former residents have moved to the other side of the lagoon, packed on to a tiny patch of land, known as Povoado. Previously a waste dump through which two sewage channels flowed, it has become home to 500 families sharing tiny shacks made of corrugated tin.
Children play among piles of rotting rubbish. Infectious diseases malaria, tuberculosis, meningitis are rife.
Alexandrino and his neighbours say they did not move voluntarily. They claim they were evicted in June 2013 by police, local officials and, some say, members of the presidential guard. Their homes were bulldozed amid violent scenes as some inhabitants resisted.
The Luanda Leaks investigation, based on a huge cache of financial records belonging to Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos, suggest her company stood to benefit from a redevelopment of the vacated land.
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