Mozambique: Black smoke, looting, riots, tear gas bring chaos to Maputo

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Mozambique: Black smoke, looting, riots, tear gas bring chaos to Maputo

4:56 CAT | 07 Nov 2024

Photo: Lusa

Maputo is on Thursday a scene of chaos, with looting, pro-Venâncio Mondlane demonstrators setting tyres on fire on the main avenues, which are impassable, as black smoke covers part of the city, between consecutive bursts of tear gas grenades.

Burning garbage containers and tires, tear gas shooting, including tear gas grenades, in an attempt to disperse the protesters, who quickly regrouped and responded by throwing stones and other objects. This is a scene that is repeated on several streets, where the presence of military personnel is also visible.

One of these scenes is on the practically impassable Eduardo Mondlane Avenue, in the heart of the Mozambican capital, with several burning tires, despite the strong police presence on site and the constant tear gas shooting echoing through the city, together with gunshots to disperse, while residents bang pots and pans in protest from their windows.

Julius Nyerere Avenue, another central artery of Maputo, was closed to traffic at 1:00 p.m., on the stretch near the Presidency of the Republic, with a strong military presence on site.

Disorganized groups of protesters and dozens can be seen in the city’s neighbourhoods as well as of water bottles scattered across the streets, which they use to wash their faces after tear gas has been thrown.

During the morning, two stores – furniture and telecommunications – in the shopping center of the South African supermarket brand Shoprite, on Avenida Acordos de Lusaka, also impassable and shrouded in thick black smoke, along with the adjacent Avenida Joaquim Chissano, were looted by the population, including minors, who stole televisions, mobile phones, printers and even refrigerators, many of whom took refuge in the city’s old bullring, next door, which has been converted into housing for several years.

At the scene, as Lusa witnessed, a large contingent of police tried to stop the looting, which according to security guards at the scene was carried out “by more than 100 people”, and chased the perpetrators, with several arrests being made, while the police fired shots and launched tear gas at the scene, while some recovered looted material from a floor strewn with empty, open mobile phone boxes.

At another point in the city, after 9:00 am local time, a march with hundreds of people, identified as supporters of presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane – who does not recognise the announced results of the general elections of 9 October -, who called for these protests, holding posters and banners, left the Maxaquene neighbourhood, a suburb neighbourhood of Maputo, and was only stopped by the police at the entrance to the city centre with repeated intervention by the police, who consecutively launched tear gas to drive them away.

With each police intervention, which also had security lines with canine and military teams to prevent access to the center, the protesters reorganized themselves and tried to advance again, repeating everything, throwing stones, actions that left at least one person injured.

“The police won’t stop us today. And we’re not going to vandalize anything. Are we armed? We’re not armed. This is our country,” said one of the protesters, confessing to being tired of “50 years of misery.”

“We’re asking which avenue we can march on,” he retorted, between statements to journalists and the police, after tear gas had been used on two occasions to try to demobilize them, with dozens of shots fired.

Earlier, at around 8:00 a.m. local time, on another artery leading out of the neighbourhood, next to Avenida Joaquim Chissano, the police managed to dissuade a small group of less than two dozen protesters who were trying to start the first march through the city.

“Your problem is that when we talk to you, you want to fight with us, but we don’t want to fight now. We are all Mozambicans, we are fighting among brothers,” said the head of the police force at the scene, appealing for calm and demobilisation while “talking” to the protesters, while a group of police officers was already positioned to stop any possible advance.

“You are in a good position, the population is suffering,” retorted one of the protesters in the same conversation, before the group retreated, albeit briefly.

During the morning, it was clear that the police intended to keep the protests and protesters in the suburbs, preventing them from advancing towards the city center, which ended up happening in small groups.

There are reports of these clashes in all the suburbs of Maputo, in addition to the city center,

Source: Lusa