Mozambique: Mondlane agrees to hold talks, accuses regime of ‘silent genocide’

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Mozambique: Mondlane agrees to hold talks, accuses regime of ‘silent genocide’

12:13 CAT | 09 Jan 2025

Photo: O País

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane on Thursday accused the Mozambican authorities of “a kind of silent genocide” in their repression of the protest against the results of the general elections, but expressed his willingness to engage in dialogue and negotiate.

“I want to break the narrative that I am absent of my own free will from the dialogue initiatives. I am here in the flesh to say that if you want to negotiate, to talk to me, if you want to come to the negotiating table, I am here for the dialogue,” Mondlane told journalists shortly after landing in Maputo.

The presidential candidate leading contestation of the October 9 general elections results also justified his return with the fact that he cannot remain outside the country when the people “are being massacred”.

“I don’t think I can be out in the open, well protected, when the people themselves, who support my candidacy and my values, are being massacred,” he said.

“I realized that the regime has opted for a strategy of creating a kind of silent genocide. People are being kidnapped from their homes, they are being extra-judicially executed in the woods and mass graves of alleged Venâncio Mondlane supporters are being discovered,” the candidate added.

Mondlane left the airport, an area under heavy security, heading towards the centre of the Mozambican capital, with his entourage accompanied by hundreds of people on foot.

Mondlane arrived in Maputo today after two and a half months abroad

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane arrived in Maputo this morning, almost two and a half months after leaving the country, and stated that with his return to Mozambique “they don’t need to persecute him [abroad] anymore”.

“They are killing my brothers, they are kidnapping my brothers,” Mondlane said when announcing, on Sunday, his return to the country, precisely three months after the October 9 general elections.

Mondlane, who does not recognize the announced results of the elections, also announced that his return marks the beginning of the new phase of post-electoral protest that he called “Spearhead”.

“If they want to assassinate me, assassinate me. If they want to arrest me, arrest me. I know that when I fall, the popular fury that will be felt in Mozambique will be unparalleled in the history of Africa and Mozambique,” he said.

Venâncio Mondlane, who has been out of Mozambique since October 21, when the post-election protests began, citing security concerns, had earlier announced that he would return via Maputo International Airport at 8:05 a.m. local time on January 9.

“So now I want to tell you what ‘Ponta de lança’ [new phase of the protest] is. On Thursday, January 9, at 8:05 a.m. sharp, I, Venâncio Mondlane, will be at Mavalane International Airport [Maputo]. I am coming to Mozambique,” he said .

Clashes between the police and the protesters contesting the results of last year’s October 9 elections have already caused almost 300 deaths, with more than 500 people suffering gun-shot wounds, according to civil society organizations following events.

“I have not left Mozambique out of fear. If they are killing our brothers, if they are destroying our brothers’ shops, if they are burning fuel pumps, if they are destroying warehouses, if they are burning factories, claiming that they are protesters when they are not, to create hatred between brothers, then if it is for me, if it is because of Venâncio, then Venâncio will be at Mavalane international airport on Thursday at 8:00 am,” he said, appealing to the population to welcome him at Maputo airport.

Mozambique’s Constitutional Council (CC), the country’s final court of appeal in electoral matters, has officially set January 15 as the date for the inauguration of the successor to Filipe Nyusi as President of the Republic.

On 23 December of last year, the CC declared ruling party Frelimo’s candidate Daniel Chapo the winner of the election for President of the Republic, with 65.17% of the vote, succeeding Filipe Nyusi in office, as well as confirming Frelimo’s success in maintaining its parliamentary majority in the general elections of 9 October.

The announcement immediately led to new clashes, destruction of public and private property, demonstrations, strikes and looting, but over the last week, with no new calls for protests, the situation has returned to normal throughout the country.

Mozambique’s Supreme Court has confirmed that there is no arrest warrant issued for Venâncio Mondlane, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened proceedings against him as the mastermind of the demonstrations, alleging losses in the public sector totalling more than €2 million in Maputo city and province alone.

Source: Lusa