2024: Demonstrations and tear gas on the streets mark the year in Mozambique – Lusa

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2024: Demonstrations and tear gas on the streets mark the year in Mozambique – Lusa

7:45 CAT | 11 Dec 2024

Whistles, horns and tear gas marked the year in which Mozambique experienced its worst contestation of the election results, with more than 100 deaths in clashes between the police and supporters of the pastor who faced the “Frelimo machine”.

On the morning of October 9, more than eight million Mozambicans, out of a total of 17 million registered, went to the polls in the country’s seventh general elections, a vote that would be marked by a series of demonstrations repudiating the results announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE).

The results released almost 15 days later attributed the victory to Daniel Chapo in the presidential elections, with 70.67% of the votes, and, in the legislative elections, to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party, in power since independence (1975), starting a protest movement led by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, a religious leader who abandoned the two main opposition parties in Mozambique to face, alone, the party that has governed the country for almost 50 years.

On the afternoon of October 24, as the president of the CNE, Carlos Matsinhe, announced the results in one of the most prestigious conference rooms in Maputo, smoke from burning tires filled the skies of the main streets in the suburbs of the capital, starting a series of clashes between the police and the protesters, which spread throughout the country.

Three days earlier, the police had already fired tear gas at a group of people who tried to demonstrate at the site of the double homicide of two Mondlane allies, one of whom was his lawyer, Elvino Dias on the night of October 18.

Tear gas was fired at the site where Mondlane was making statements to journalists, appealing for calm during the march he had called, forcing the politician to flee, a moment captured by several national and international media outlets.

With more than a hundred dead and nearly 350 injured by gunshots, the clashes between the police and the protesters continued in the weeks that followed, bringing chaos to the streets, paralyzing several urban centres, with blockades on the main highways, even in the capital, and even temporarily closing the country’s main border with South Africa, Ressano Garcia.

The wave of demonstrations led to the blocking of avenues, honking of horns and banging of pots and pans in the main urban centres.

Mondlane, who left the country days after the double murder of his allies, has been the voice of command for the demonstrations, through his live broadcasts on the social network Facebook, followed mainly by the younger generation.

His main opponents accuse him of taking advantage of the socio-political weaknesses of a country where statistics indicate that, out of a population of 32 million Mozambicans, around 9.4 million are young people, a third of whom have no employment, education or professional training.

But those who follow him see a “new proposal” to “save Mozambique” – as Mondlane’s slogan puts it – a country that is among the poorest despite its notable potential, especially in mineral resources.

“For the new Mozambican youth, the discourse of historical demands by those who brought liberation or fought for democracy no longer makes sense. The new youth want jobs,” political analyst Alberto da Cruz told Lusa.

In some places, the streets of Maputo still show signs of the clashes, including the remnants of burnt tires and vandalized shops. The protests were described by the authorities as an attempt to “subvert the established constitutional order” financed by “some civil society organizations and ill-intentioned individuals”.

Despite calls for restraint by the police, chaos and stoppages have marked several days in recent months, but the running over of a young woman in the middle of the protests by an armoured military vehicle traveling at high speed, in a scenario of extreme violence, once again drew the world’s attention to Mozambique.

The incident, captured by the media and people who were at the scene, angered the protesters.

But even before the elections, Mozambique was once again in the world’s spotlight, with a new wave of attacks in February towards the south of Cabo Delgado, a province that has been terrorized by rebel groups associated with the Islamic State since 2017. More than 67,000 people fled their homelands and the incursions were justified by the executive as a result of the “movement of small groups of terrorists” who left their barracks in the south of Cabo Delgado, after a period of relative stability.

Several other rebel incursions were recorded in the months that followed, highlighting, among the largest, the attack on May 10 and 11, that on Macomia district headquarters, with around a hundred insurgents looting the village, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces and the Rwandan military, which supports the country in fighting the rebels.

Although authorities argue that things are returning to normal, TotalEnergies’ US$25 billion (€23.7 billion) natural gas exploration project, ranked as one of Africa’s biggest investments, remains suspended, although the company president ensures that almost 80% of the US$14 billion (€13.26 billion) needed for the mega gas project in Cabo Delgado are guaranteed.

Source: Lusa