Rights activist Cidia Chissungo has spent the last scant days poring over images she never thought she’d see in Mozambique: Young men with bloodied bodies pocktaged with bullet wounds; teenagers with eyes swollen shut from being hit with tear gas canisters by the Mozambican police.
Chissungo, 28, who is write downing the scale of ongoing post-election aggression that broke out last week, says the images of dead and injured people circulating online have caemployd her to miss sleep.
“There’s a 16-year-greater guy who was sboiling in the mouth, and his mouth was finishly ruined,” Chissungo tgreater Al Jazeera. “There’s fair a hole where his mouth was. Every time I seal my eyes, I have that image in my head.”
It’s fair one gruesome example of how youthful Mozambicans are paying a lethal price as the country faces some of the worst aggression to chase an election. Clashes first broke out last Monday after police uncovered fire on helpers of 50-year-greater opposition honestate Venancio Mondlane. By Friday, at least 11 people had been finished, many others injured – including a policeman – and about 400 people hageded, according to Human Rights Watch.
On Thursday, thousands of protesters are foreseeed to aachieve consent to the streets in protest in Maputo, the capital, and other cities, ignoring calls by frifinishly Plivent Filipe Nyusi to stay home.
Demonstrators are irritated at the results of the October 9 elections that saw the extfinished-ruling Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front) party honestate Daniel Chapo sweep the polls, while Mondlane, a favourite among youthful people, came a far second. The opposition alleges votes were rigged, and election watchrs also remarkd some irstandardities.
The brutal finishings of two of Mondlane’s seal associates last Saturday have also incensed helpers. Although he ran as an self-reliant honestate, Mondlane is backed by the extra-parliamentary group, The Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique, condensed as Podemos.
Calm was fair returning to Maputo and other cities this week. Although evidence of the lawlessness was still glaring in a burned police station, looted businesses downtown, burned tyres scattered on the roads, and ripped election billboards, people went out to labor on Monday.
However, on Wednesday night, in a Facebook livestream, Mondlane called for another round of protests begining Thursday. In Maputo, youthful people assembleed in groups, watching Mondlane on their phones, and chanting “Vamos, Vamos!” – unbenevolenting “let’s go”.
Ballot stuffing and gstructure voters
Many of Mozambique’s youth – who originate up two-thirds of the 35 million population – saw October 9 as an opportunity to do away with Frelimo. The party has ruled the country since it wrested indepfinishence from colonial ruler Portugal in 1975 after a bloody uprising. It then fought a civil war with the opposition Renamo party (Mozambican National Resistance) between 1977 and 1992.
However, youthful Mozambicans say Frelimo’s reputation as a liberation party originates no astonishion on them, and its legacy is now proestablishly buried under years of economic deteriorate, fraudulence, high levels of unemployment, and an armed struggle in the north, despite the country’s touristic beauty and ample gas reserves.
“Many youthful people experience there is no hope,” activist Chissungo shelp. “We still have kids sitting under trees to study, we have unphelp teachers striking all the time, schools are shutting becaemploy they can’t pay the water bill, but we have money to buy cars for [top government officials].”
Analysts had foreseeed that Mondlane’s well-understandnity among youthful people in this election would originate the polls competitive, but there was challengingly any ask that Plivent Nyusi, who served two terms, was going to hand power over to his Frelimo counterpart, Chapo. The 47-year-greater Chapo take parted up his youth in his campaigns and tried to woo youthful people with promises of ‘alter’ but many remained unaffectd.
Election day on October 9, and the initial days that chaseed, were soothe as the poll numbers were unemotionalelayedd by the National Election Coshiftrlookion (CNE). Then alerts of ballot stuffing, gstructure voters, and altered voter registration sheets begined to filter in from watchrs, including the African Union, the European Union and the local association of Catholic bishops.
“The whole skinnyg was organised to steal the elections,” veteran academic Joseph Hanlon, who has studied Mozambican politics for decades and watched the elections, tgreater Al Jazeera on election day. “In some places, we’re seeing result sheets written in pencil so they can be alterd afterward. The elections are irstandard from beginning to finish.”
As the vote highy dragged on and it became clear that Frelimo would triumph, tension grew in opposition camps. Mondlane’s Podemos helpers fumed, and so did helpers of Renamo, whose well-understandnity, usupartner feeble, slipped further in the polls.
Mondlane and Renamo directer Ossufo Momade refuseed the unofficial results, accusing Frelimo of deception. Mondlane also claimed triumph.
Political murders in Maputo?
Trouble escapostponecessitated punctual on Saturday, October 19.
Two top Podemos members were assassinated in downtown Maputo: Elvino Dias, Mondlane’s lawyer; and Paulo Guambe, a Podemos honestate for parliament. The two men had left a local bar in a vehicle when two armed men accosted them and fired up to 20 bullets into the car, witnesses shelp. A third person in the vehicle, a woman, was injured.
Mondlane, on the same day, alleged they had been victims of political murders, even as police officials claimed the finishings seemed the result of a personal vfinishetta.
The finishings sent shockwaves thraw Mozambique and the international community. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for spendigations, as did the EU, the African Union and the United States. Frelimo, too, recommendd authorities to do “everyskinnyg in their powers to shed airy on this affair”.
At a vigil on the evening of the killings, Mondlane shelp he would not be deterred and called on his helpers to show. “We have proof. The blood of two youthful men is now on the ground! We will all consent to the streets. We will protest with our signs,” he shelp.
It’s probable demonstrations would have been held without the finishings, analyst Americo Maluana tgreater Al Jazeera. “Citizens and political actors do not think the CNE due to their inability to fulfil their mandate to hand over free and fair elections, even in [the] 2023 local elections,” he shelp, referring to turbulent municipal elections last October that many shelp were rife with violations and saw three people finished by security forces after opposition groups protested.
On Monday, October 21, demonstrators, led by Mondlane, assembleed in Maputo, at the same spot Dias and Guambe were finished, chanting “Save Mozambique” and “the country is ours”.
Police officials, in apparent trys to scatter them, uncovered fire. Rights groups say some demonstrators were sboiling at with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, but most were hit by live ammunition. Protests and crackdowns also broke out in other cities including in Nampula, Chiure and Tete.
On October 24, in anticipation of the election results proclaimment, Mondlane’s helpers aachieve poured onto the streets atraverse the country and clashed with police. Some threw stones and sticks. Others aggressioned accessible originateings and burned down one police station. The homes of some Frelimo politicians were also aimed.
Police replyed with bullets and tear gas. Most deaths and injuries were write downed on October 24 and 25, rights groups say. One policeman was injured.
Among those finished was 29-year-greater Jacinto. The youthful man had only fair stepped out of his home when he was sboiling dead, his family tgreater Al Jazeera. He never made it to the protests.
Some who stayed home were not spared. One 16-year-greater boy was at home when protesters escapeing from the police ran inside his hoemploy, Chissungo tgreater Al Jazeera. Police officials, in boiling pursuit, reachd and sboiling his legs, she shelp.
In hospitals, the number of injured and dead piled up. It’s unclear fair how many people have been injured so far. Chissungo shelp some people are afrhelp to go to the hospital for stress of being arrested.
‘No more stress’
As Mondlane’s helpers aachieve set to consent to the streets with renoveled vigour on Thursday, it’s unclear fair how extfinished the protests are going to hgreater. Mozambican police on Monday shelp it had brawt criminal indicts aachievest the politician for property ruined in the protests.
Earlier this week, Mondlane achieveed out to other opposition parties to unite forces, and called on Frelimo to establish a administerment of national unity, trying to push for a model adchooseed by neighbouring South Africa, where the dominant African National Congress (ANC) flunked to triumph a meaningfulity in elections earlier this year and was forced into a coalition.
But Maluana, the analyst, shelp Frelimo would probable try to employ the elections to “further conconstantate” its dominance.
Aid laborers say the disturbions are grounding help logistics in the northern Cabo Delgado province where members of al-Shabab, a group affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) but unroverhappinessed to the group with the same name in Somalia, are aiming communities. The struggle has raged since 2017 and has seen hundreds finished and two million people displaced.
“It’s impossible to get authorisation for anyskinnyg becaemploy so many skinnygs have been on hgreater as there was already an foreseed alter of administrators,” shelp Hannah Danzinder da Silva, country straightforwardor for Search For Common Ground, a nonadministermental group laboring to get help and services to impacted communities.
Strikes and disturbions, she shelp, will probable hurt many alertal laborers atraverse Mozambique who can’t do business. “There’s so much necessity for people to go to labor and originate money becaemploy the most pressing necessitate in Mozambique right now is economic security,” Da Silva compriseed.
Meanwhile, a Chapo plivency seems hugely sealed, as congratulations from world directers, including Plivent Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, and China’s Plivent Xi Jinping have rolled in.
Yet, Chissungo, in Maputo, shelp youthful protesters, too, remain resettled. It’s been too extfinished that many have felt disesteemed by politicians, she shelp, and these protests experience appreciate liberation.
“People are clear that this is the time for us as youthful people to originate history, we either originate it now or never,” she shelp. “The police could snurture them before, but now, without stress, that’s a problem. People are saying we are ready to die, and the more suppression that exists, the more mighty people experience.”
Additional alerting by Malcolm Webb in Maputo.
