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Mozambique: Over 2,790 still detained one year after election protests – Plataforma Decide report
2:18 CAT | 21 Oct 2025
FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]
At least 2,790 people remain in detention, out of a total of 7,200, one year after the start of post-election protests in Mozambique, which left 411 people dead, according to data from the Decide platform, consulted on Tuesday by Lusa.
According to the report “Scars of Democracy in Mozambique: Human Impacts and Protection Failures in Post-Election Demonstrations (2024-2025)” by Plataforma Decide, which monitors electoral processes, in the protests that followed the general elections of 9 October 2024, there were 7,200 “arbitrary arrests” across the country, of which 4,410 people have already been released.
“The provinces of Maputo, Nampula, Zambézia and Sofala accounted for 78% of cases, with a predominance of young people between the ages of 18 and 35. Women accounted for 14% of victims in cases of detention, injury and death, revealing increased vulnerability in the context of repression,” states the document, which analyses the protests that broke out in Maputo on 21 October 2024, two days after the double homicide of lawyer Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, supporters of presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.
During the same period – the protests continued until last March – 3,700 people were injured, more than 900 of them by firearms, in addition to five people still reported missing and 17 executions “with political overtones,” according to the report.
Police forces accounted for 4.2% of the total 411 deaths (17), while children accounted for 5% of the deaths (20), it adds.
The Mozambique general elections, which gave victory in the presidential elections to Daniel Chapo of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party with 65.17% of the votes, resulted in a wave of demonstrations called by candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who never recognised the results, alleging electoral fraud.
In the report, Plataforma Decide denounces the total absence of public investigation, judicial accountability and compensation for victims of the wave of demonstrations, in addition to the failures of judicial institutions, “subject to political interference”, in protecting fundamental rights.
The government repeatedly denied the seriousness of the facts, classifying the demonstrations as “isolated disturbances”, while the police forces acted with tacit permission to repress. Not even the cases confirmed as deaths and injuries by the police received any dignified redress from the local authorities,” it denounces.
The executive director of Plataforma Decide, Wilker Dias, told Lusa that the data represents the inertia of the justice system and the continued marginalisation of disadvantaged groups, such as young people and women, and should serve as a catalyst for improvement by the government, as well as an international call for “targeted” intervention in human rights.
As a way of minimising the damage to victims, he adds, the Decide platform has been providing psychosocial support and medical assistance, in addition to an ongoing process, together with the Bar Association, to hold those responsible accountable and compensate the victims.
According to the report, more than 30 people have received medical and psychosocial support through Plataforma Decide, in an initiative that has included treatment of injuries, physical rehabilitation, emotional support, provision of food and payment of rent, as well as financial support for social reintegration.
“And now we are going to start working with the Bar Association, most likely, on the issue of accountability and compensation for the victims,” added Wilker Dias, lamenting the lack of accountability on the part of the state towards the victims of the demonstrations: “It is important to restore the confidence of the Mozambican people, it is important, in order to bring about reconciliation, that this issue of accountability is at the forefront.”
The violence in Mozambique ceased after a first meeting in March between the country’s president, Daniel Chapo, and Venâncio Mondlane, and a peace process is underway that provides for a government commitment to carry out various reforms, including to the Constitution and electoral laws.
Source: Lusa
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