Joao Lourenco has been sworn in as president of Angola, becoming the first new leader in the oil-rich southern African nation in almost four decades.
Lourenco, 63, took over on Tuesday from Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the former Portuguese colony for 38 years.
The Portuguese news agency Lusa said thousands of people were on hand for the inauguration, which ended with a military parade and a 21-gun salute.
Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema was present at the ceremony, along with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila, South African President Jacob Zuma and other African leaders.
The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has governed since Angola’s hard-fought independence from Portugal in 1975, with Dos Santos taking power in 1979.
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Source Al Jazeera