Video footage has emerged from Saturday that captures the moment a uniformed police officer wrestles a protester in a wheelchair to the floor.
The incident happened in Angola’s capital, Luanda, where a protest was taking place in an attempt to draw the attention of the governing authorities to the lack of accessible infrastructure and equal opportunities in education and employment for people with disabilities.
Watch: Angola Police attack people with disabilities who were protesting for right to have public infrastructure adapted to their condition. pic.twitter.com/UgtFL7nI5V
— Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz) April 23, 2017
Witnesses at the scene also claimed that officers wrenched banners and leaflets from other protesters with physical disabilities. The police then left the scene, as people struggled to help those who were beaten.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday that the activists had initially been blocked by police, before officers attempted to moved in to disperse the group from holding an “unauthorised” protest.
“They beat those who refused to leave. Eventually they allowed the protest to proceed, but only under the close watch of police officers with dogs,” the rights group explained.
The Associação Nacional dos Deficientes de Angola (National Association of Disabled People of Angola), who were the group involved in the protests on Saturday, are angry at the government because they believe that they are not doing enough to help disabled people.
It is estimated that over 650,000 of Angola’s 25 million population have a physical disability, according to Angola’s 2016 census.
