IURD is a Pentecostal Christian church created in 1977 in Brazil, where it has over 8 million followers, according to its own website. IURD says it is present in most countries of the world.

Ferner Batalha, IURD’s deputy bishop for Angola, said the vigil had been overcrowded.

“Our expectation was to have 70,000 people, but that was surpassed by far,” Angop cited him as saying.