In a statement published on the social network Facebook, the Consulate General of Angola in Rio de Janeiro stressed that the buses carry Angolan and Brazilian citizens.
According to the diplomatic representation, the remaining passengers on the repatriation flight will proceed on their own to Guarulhos airport, in the state of São Paulo, to board a humanitarian flight from TAAG carrier to Angola on Thursday at 03.30am local time.
"The 76 registered Angolans are part of a group of 84 citizens who have been detained for more than four months in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, who came to Brazil for various reasons, such as medical treatment, study, business, among others," stressed the Angolan Consulate in the social network.
The diplomatic representation said it carried out several actions to alleviate the suffering of these citizens detained in Brazil during that period.
"The Consul General of Angola in Rio de Janeiro, Sá Miranda, has been in São Paulo since Monday (...), where he joined the Ambassador and the Consul in São Paulo, to follow the procedures of the return of this group of Angolans who have been detained since March because of the covid-19 pandemic," he added.
The Angolan government announced Wednesday that Portugal, where around 7,000 Angolans are waiting to return to their country, whose borders are closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, is the next destination for the repatriation of citizens, without moving dates.
The announcement was made by the Minister of State and head of the Security House of the President of the Republic, Pedro Sebastião, who is also coordinator of the multisectoral commission to combat and prevent covid-19.
Brazil is the Portuguese-speaking country most affected by the pandemic and one of the hardest hit in the world, accounting for the second highest number of infected and dead (over 1.92 million cases and 74,133 deaths), after the United States.
Angola has 576 infected and 27 dead due to the new coronavirus.
The covid-19 pandemic has already caused more than 578,000 deaths and infected more than 13.34 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected at the end of December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
After Europe succeeded China as the centre of the pandemic in February, the American continent now has the most confirmed cases and the most deaths.
