Mozambique: Forty detained during post-election protests just freed in Beira

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Mozambique: Forty detained during post-election protests just freed in Beira

6:57 CAT | 31 Oct 2025

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Photo: Plataforma Decide/X

Forty Mozambicans detained during post-election protests in Beira have been released due to lack of evidence, the NGO Plataforma Decide reports. Twenty remain in custody amid ongoing allegations of arbitrary detention.

At least 40 people detained for “participation in riot, robbery and invasion” during last year’s post-election demonstrations in Beira, central Mozambique, have been acquitted due to insufficient evidence, according to the electoral platform Decide.

“These citizens were released last week; 20 others remain in custody. We are working on their cases alongside the lawyers handling them,” Wilker Dias, executive director of the Mozambican NGO that monitors electoral processes, told Lusa yesterday.

According to Dias, those detained during the post-election demonstrations in Sofala province faced accusations including rioting, robbery and trespassing on private property.

“They were held for a long time (…) without evidence,” he said, adding that many were not even caught in the act.

“So, we have verified some of these cases – the deprivation of liberty of innocent citizens, some of whom were taken into custody while returning from work, losing their jobs, with no accountability from the state. It is time to address this, and it will be one of the next steps we take,” he said.

Decide data consulted by Lusa on 21 October indicates that at least 2,790 people remain in detention out of a total of 7,200 arrested during the riots, which left 411 people dead.

More than 40 people arrested during the demonstrations in Beira were released after almost a year. Accused of theft and rioting, the defense proved the lack of evidence, securing their release. Special thanks to Dr. Alex Gilete, and Decide will continue to follow the case. pic.twitter.com/AWh5o4FRIB

— Plataforma_DECIDE (@PDecide23) October 30, 2025

NGO demands accountability

According to Decide’s report “Scars of Democracy in Mozambique: Human Impacts and Protection Failures in Post-Election Demonstrations (2024-2025”, the post-election protests following the 9 October 2024 general elections saw 7,200 “arbitrary detentions” nationwide, of which 4,410 people had been released by October 21 2025.

“The provinces of Maputo, Nampula, Zambézia and Sofala accounted for 78% of the cases, predominantly involving young people aged 18 to 35. Women represented 14% of those affected by detention, injury and death, highlighting their increased vulnerability in the context of repression,” the report states. It analysed the protests that broke out in Maputo on 21 October 2024, two days after the double homicide of lawyer Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, both supporters of presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

READ: Mozambique: Over 2,790 still detained one year after election protests – Plataforma Decide report

The Mozambican general elections, which declared Daniel Chapo of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party the winner of the presidency with 65.17% of the vote, sparked a wave of demonstrations called by Venâncio Mondlane, who never recognised the results and alleged electoral fraud.

The Decide report also highlights the complete absence of public investigations, judicial accountability, and compensation for the victims of the protests, as well as failures of judicial institutions “subject to political interference” in protecting fundamental rights.

Source: DW / Lusa