Mozambique: Mondlane files complaint with PGR about attacks on supporters

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Mozambique: Mondlane files complaint with PGR about attacks on supporters

2:12 CAT | 16 May 2025

FIL E- For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

Former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said that, despite the call for national peace on 23 March, there had been an escalation in “attacks” against his supporters, and again called for the intervention of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).

“Instead of the expected reduction in violence, there has been a continuation, even an increase, of the attacks against our members and political structures,” reads a complaint filed by the politician to the PGR, dated May 15.

In his complaint, which Mondlane claims is the third he has filed with the PGR about episodes of violence against his supporters following the general elections of 9 October, the politician highlights “the tragic irony of the events that occurred after the meeting” of 23 March, which ended with a “handshake” between himself and Daniel Chapo, President of the Republic.

“Many interpreted it as a possible sign of reconciliation and political easing,” Mondlane writes in his complaint, referring to “the persistent wave of violence perpetrated against members of his political project, with particular involvement of agents of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) and the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR)”.

It states that “since the last update” on March 10, “23 new victims have been recorded, bringing the total number to 436 documented incidents of violence against members of the political project”, highlighting the “decapitation of organs” of a supporter in Inhambane province, as an “act of barbarity that represents a level of violence unacceptable in any civilized society”.

It also denounces, among the most recent cases, “the kidnapping and assassination at gunshots of the coordinator of the locality of Zavala” and the “attack” against the national mobilizer and national director of its campaign, musician Joel Amaral, shot by unknown assailants on April 13, in Quelimane, in Zambézia province, in the centre of the country.

“A case with great media coverage and a symbol of the escalation of political repression,” Mondlane alleges in the same complaint, addressed to the Attorney General of the Republic, Américo Letela, and also sent to the Minister of the Interior, Paulo Chachine.

“In addition, we reiterate our insistence on the complaint previously filed about incitement to violence by Mr. Daniel Chapo, the effects of which have been manifested in subsequent acts. Curiously, we have not been notified to date of the progress of this complaint, although the interrogation processes against Venâncio Mondlane himself and other senior members of our project, such as Dinis Tivane, are proceeding normally,” the complaint reads.

In view of the “gravity of the situation”, Mondlane once again asks the PGR to “immediately open criminal investigations against the agents and perpetrators involved in the acts of homicide, torture, political persecution and destruction of property”, as well as to “guarantee effective protection for witnesses, victims and their families, many of whom are at risk”.

Mondlane also demands the “criminal and disciplinary accountability of the police authorities involved”. He furthermore calls for the “intervention of national and international human rights organizations to ensure independent and impartial monitoring of the investigations”.

Around 400 people died in clashes with the police in the demonstrations and protests that followed the general elections of October 9 in Mozambique, called by Venâncio Mondlane – who does not recognize the election results, which gave him second place in the presidential race -, which also degenerated into violence, looting and destruction of businesses and public property.

After the meeting between Venâncio Mondlane and Daniel Chapo, sworn in as the fifth President of the Republic on January 15, both agreed on a call for pacification of the country, and there have been no known cases of violence in the context of political protest since then.

Source: Lusa