Mozambique: Number of dead after Maputo jail breaks rises to 35; 332 recaptured

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Mozambique: Number of dead after Maputo jail breaks rises to 35; 332 recaptured

6:22 CAT | 07 Jan 2025

File photo: VOA Português

The number of people who have died as a result of clashes between guards and inmates after escaping from two prisons in Maputo has risen to 35, the national prison service of Mozambique (SERNAP) announced on Tuesday.

According to figures from the Mozambican authorities sent to Lusa, the number of inmates recaptured out of a total of 1,534 who escaped from prisons in the Mozambican capital at the end of 2024 has also risen to 332.

The inmates escaped from the special maximum security prison and the Maputo provincial prison, located more than 14 kilometres from the centre of the Mozambican capital, on 25 December, and were recaptured as a result of joint operations between SERNAP and the Defence and Security Forces, the agency said.

On Monday, January 6, the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD), a Mozambican non-governmental organisation (NGO), filed a legal action with the attorney general’s office (PGR) against the ministries of the interior and justice for the “massacre” of the inmates, who were “murdered by police bullets”, according to the CDD’s director, Adriano Nuvunga.

READ: Mozambique. NGO files complaint over alleged ‘massacre’ of prisoners – Watch

Previously, in a direct statement on the social network Facebook, Venâncio Mondlane, the presidential candidate who is leading the protest against the election results from abroad, rejected the thesis that the protesters contesting the results of the 9 October general elections were involved, put forward by the police, accusing the authorities of having deliberately allowed the inmates to escape, with the aim of manipulating the masses and diverting society’s focus.

“It was all deliberate. These are mass manipulation techniques in the style of the Soviet secret services (…) so that people stop talking about electoral fraud. They want to divert our focus,” said Mondlane, who also accused the authorities of having “sacrificed” some of the inmates.

Mozambique has been going through a post-election crisis since October, with protests and stoppages that have culminated in violent clashes between police and demonstrators rejecting the results of the October 9 elections, with almost 300 people killed and close to 600 shot dead, according to civil society organisations monitoring the process.

Source: Lusa