Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, took over Saturday, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as the leader of the African Union (AU) for the next 12 months, succeeding Mohamed Ould Cheikh Al-Ghazouani, from Mauritania.
Here is the profile of the 23rd AU President
João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço was born on 5 March 1954, in the city of Lobito, Benguela province, the son of Sequeira João Lourenço, a nurse, and Josefa Gonçalves Cipriano Lourenço, a seamstress, both deceased.
He is married to Ana Afonso Dias Lourenço and is the father of six children. He completed his primary and secondary education in the province of Bié and also in the capital city, at the former Luanda Industrial School and the Luanda Industrial Institute.
From 1978 to 1982, he received military training in the then Soviet Union, specializing in heavy artillery. In that country, he also obtained a Master’s degree in Historical Sciences.
He is fluent in English, Russian and Spanish. From August 1974 onwards, he participated in the Armed Struggle for National Liberation, led by the MPLA, and received his first political and military training at the Revolutionary Training Center – CIR ‘Kalunga’ – in Congo-Brazzaville.
He was part of the first group of MPLA fighters who entered national territory in 1974, via Miconge, heading for the city of Cabinda.
On the eve of National Independence, he participated in battles in Ntó-Iema, in the province of Cabinda, and in other locations, against the invasion of the Zairean army that intended to occupy the territory of that province of Angola.
He also served as Political Commissioner of the then People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) at various levels, including Political Commissioner of the 2nd Political-Military Region of Cabinda.
During the 1980s, he participated in several military operations in the center of the country, namely in the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Huambo and Bié. In 1983, he served as President of the Regional Military Council of the 3rd Political-Military Region. In the Armed Forces, he also served as Chief of the Political Directorate of FAPLA from 1989 to 1990.
He is currently a retired Three-Star General of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). He has been a member of the MPLA Central Committee since 1985, a member of the Political Bureau since 1990 and, following the 7th Ordinary Congress of the MPLA, held in 2016, he was elected Vice-President of the MPLA.
He had previously served as First Secretary of the Political Bureau and also as Secretary of the MPLA Political Bureau for Information and the Economic and Social Sphere.
In terms of government functions, he was appointed in 1983, at the age of 29, to the post of Provincial Commissioner of Moxico, equivalent to the current position of provincial governor. He was subsequently, from 1986 to 1989, Provincial Commissioner of Benguela.
In 2014, by Presidential Decree, he was appointed Minister of National Defence, a position he held until the start of the 2017 election campaign.
At parliamentary level, João Lourenço was chairman of the MPLA Parliamentary Group from 1991 to 1998, and later president of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly, having served as first vice-president of the National Assembly from 2003 to 2014. João Lourenço’s hobbies include reading, chess, horse riding and is passionate about new Information Technologies.
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