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Agencies José Eduardo dos Santos, once one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers who during almost four decades as president of Angola fought the continent’s longest civil war and turned his country into a major oil producer as well as one of the world’s poorest and most corrupt nations, died Friday. He was 79.Dos Santos died at a clinic in Barcelona, Spain following a long illness, the Angolan government said in an announcement on its Facebook page.The announcement said dos Santos was “a statesman of great historical scale who governed ... the Angolan nation through very difficult times.” Dos Santos had mostly lived in Barcelona since stepping down in 2017 and had been undergoing treatment there for health problems.Angola’s current head of state, João Lourenço, announced five days of national mourning starting Saturday, when the country’s flag will fly at half-staff and public events are canceled.Dos Santos came to power four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal and became enmeshed in the Cold War as a proxy battlefield.His political journey spanned single-party Marxist rule in post-colonial years and a democratic system of government adopted in 2008. He voluntarily stepped down when his health began failing.
