Mozambique: Activists appeal to Filipe Nyusi after attack on lawyer – DW

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Mozambique: Activists appeal to Filipe Nyusi after attack on lawyer – DW

8:05 CAT | 28 Jan 2022

Members of the Mozambican Network of Human Rights Defenders in Maputo

The Mozambican Network of Human Rights Defenders has denounced threats against lawyer João Nhampossa and invited President Filipe Nyusi to a meeting to explain the activists’ real intentions.

Lawyer and human rights defender João Nhampossa was threatened and his office attacked only weeks later, the Mozambican Human Rights Network alleged this Thursday (27-01).

The criminals stole a computer, cell phone and some documents from among the various goods in the office.

According to João Nhampossa, “it seems that there is a program of attacks on human rights defenders and social activists, as if they were doing something that threatens the development of Mozambique, which is not so”.

Nyusi called to discuss human rights situation

The lawyer recalls President Nyusi’s speech in his first term, which exhaustively highlighted the defence of human rights that the lawyer wants to see realised.

“I also take this opportunity to ask the President of the Republic to have a meeting with human rights defenders, with human and social rights activists, to talk to them and understand the logic of their work, the extent to which this working group contributes to the consolidation of peace, to the economic development of Mozambique and to the defence of human rights,” Nhampossa told a press conference in Maputo.

Another member of the Network of Human Rights Defenders, lawyer Jaime Macuane, says that what happened to João Nhampossa “shows once again that the human rights situation in Mozambique remains worrying”.

Macuane said that “human rights defenders are often subjected to the most varied forms of repression, persecution, kidnapping and psychological and physical violence”.

Silencing attempt

Nhampossa has been noteworthy in defending the rights of communities affected by the megaprojects, and Macuane does not doubt that the attack was an attempt to silence him.

“The lawyer was recently on one of the television channels commenting on the process of selling Vale Moçambique and works on various matters of public interest and human rights such as the case of the hidden debts, cases related to the extractive industry and the illegal tolls on the ring road,” he pointed out.

The Mozambican Network of Human Rights Defenders has demanded that the authorities investigate the case and hold to account the individuals responsible for the break-in at Nhampossa’s office.

Source: Deutsche Welle