Chinese businesses on Friday said armed Angolan gangs were staging “mafia-style” attacks on their workers, but police downplayed the concerns, insisting criminals were not singling out the Chinese community.
A string of gang robberies has targeted Chinese companies and housing compounds in recent months, said Eddie Zhang (張焰), head of Shanghai Urban Construction Group, the company building Luanda’s new soccer stadium for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
“These are not just normal robberies ... They are planned, like mafia-style attacks. The gangs go first to inspect premises and then they go back with AK-47s,” Zhang said.
Zhang said his staff had not had any problems, but he had warned his workers to take extra care.
“We have a lot of security at the site and also I think that Angolans know how important this project is for the country, but elsewhere things are getting bad and people are talking about wanting to go back home,” he said.
He added that the Chinese embassy had advised nationals against going out alone at night.
More than 40,000 Chinese workers are employed in Angola, around 90 percent on construction sites.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Luanda said that they were aware of incidents against Chinese nationals and were working with Angolan authorities to resolve the problem.
Police chief superintendent Jorge Bengue, from the Luanda Police Command, said that Chinese workers were not a special target for criminals.
“These type of incidents could happen anywhere to anyone — to Angolans, to Portuguese, to Chinese, to anyone,” Bengue said. “The crime situation is a reality, but the problem in Luanda is not specific to Chinese people. I don’t have statistics to hand from the last week, but I don’t have a recollection of there being a high number of crimes against Chinese nationals and certainly there are more crimes against Angolans.”
Nonetheless, Xu Ning (�?, the head of the Chinese Business Council in Luanda, said Chinese living in Angola were increasingly afraid.
“Things have got worse in the last few months. Just last night, someone I was due to have dinner with did not turn up because he had been robbed and last week a man was shot dead in Viana,” Xu said. “He had been working here for a year and was due to leave, so had all his year’s salary in his rucksack when he was approached by an armed gang. He fought back so they shot him, first in the foot, and when he fought more, they shot him twice in the stomach. He went to hospital and then died.”
Chinese firms have several key post-war reconstruction contracts in Angola, including new roads, airports and government buildings, as well as four soccer stadiums. Chinese credit lines to Angola are believed to exceed US$5 billion.
“This county has a lot of future, but people won’t stay to work here if they’re afraid,” said Ning, who has been in Angola for 11 years and represents 40 companies. “We are hearing about two or three attacks a day and people are talking about leaving. Some small companies have already gone back. The police need to do something about this, if they don’t, it will just encourage more gangs.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home