Angola is under fire after it denied entry to several senior African political figures set to attend a conference hosted by the country’s main opposition party.

Unita said it had invited the politicians, including Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, Mozambique’s Venancio Mondlane and Botswana’s former President Ian Khama, to a summit on democracy.

“The action of the Angolan government to prevent us from entering Angola is inexplicable and unacceptable,” Lissu said on X.

The BBC has asked the Angolan government to comment.

But according to a source from the Migration and Aliens Service (SME), “the expulsion was due to irregularities in the visa procedure, which prevented Mondlane and 13 other members of his entourage from entering Angolan territory”.

At least 20 leaders and representatives from various political parties across Africa were denied entry, said Lissu.

“The government of this country is ruling a dictatorship while pretending that Angola is a democratic country,” he said.

Kenyan senator Edwin Sifuna, from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, said on X he was among those denied entry into Angola.

Others included Colombia’s former President Andres Pastrana and Zanzibar’s first Vice-President Othman Masoud Othman.

Tomas Viera Mario, a Mozambican political analyst, told the BBC the move was “strange” as Angola’s President Joao Lourenco has positioned himself as a kind of mediator on the continent.

Lourenco is currently the chair of the African Union (AU), and is hosting peace talks over the DR Congo conflict next week.

Mr Mario added that barring these figures showed “total contempt and “little respect” for the pan-African spirit of the AU.

All the deported leaders were part of a delegation invited by Unita to participate in a political event in Benguela province.

Unita lawmaker Nelito da Costa Ekwiki also condemned the decision not to allow them entry to the country.

The Angolan government has long been accused of shutting down dissent in order to maintain its hold on power.

Additional reporting by Jorge Nsimba in Luanda

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