Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Angola's ruler for almost 40 years, dies at 79

July 8 (UPI) -- Jose Eduardo dos Santos, a longtime controversial African ruler who was president of Angola for nearly four decades, died on Friday close to his home in Spain. He was 79.

The government of Angola announced dos Santos' death in a statement posted to Facebook. It said he died at a clinic in Barcelona after a prolonged illness.

"The Executive of the Republic of Angola brings to the knowledge of national and international public opinion, with a feeling of great pain and dismay, the death of His Excellency the former President of the Republic, Engineer Jose Eduardo dos Santos," the statement read.

The government statement said dos Santos was "a statesman of great historic dimension, who ruled for many years with clarity and humanism."

Dos Santos was president of Angola from 1979 until his retirement in 2017. During his rule, dos Santos turned Angola into a major oil producer -- but at the same time was accused of various acts of corruption and silencing dissenters.

Among other things, he was accused of using his power to grow his family's wealth while average Angolans lived in poverty.

Dos Santos was named "Man of the Year" in 2014 by Africa World magazine and received a number of Angolan honors for his leadership during the civil war that lasted until 2002.

Dos Santos was married four times and is believed to have several children. According to The New York Times, dos Santos' daughter ran the Angolan state oil company and became Africa's richest woman with an estimated fortune of $3.5 billion.

His son Jose Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos, who ran Angola's $5 billion sovereign wealth fund, was charged with fraud in 2018 involving a transfer of $500 million from that fund.