Mozambique: Portugal advises nationals to take extra care in coming days

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Mozambique: Portugal advises nationals to take extra care in coming days

11:56 CAT | 13 Nov 2024

File photo: Miramar

Portugal’s consulate general in Maputo on Tuesday called for “increased security precautions” for Portuguese citizens in the coming days, given the call for new post-election demonstrations in the capital until Friday.

“In view of the call for demonstrations for the period from 13 to 15 November, in the provincial capitals and near Mozambique’s road and port border posts, all Portuguese citizens in this country are advised to maintain increased security precautions, avoiding areas with popular gatherings,” reads a notice released by the consulate-general.

It also recommends that Portuguese citizens “give due thought and preparation to any journeys, namely by gathering prior information from the appropriate authorities about the absence of restrictions on public roads”.

“Road traffic across Mozambique’s land borders should be limited to what is strictly necessary between 13 and 15 November, due to the possibility of blockades and clashes at the respective border posts,” the notice adds, calling for air travel for longer journeys.

Portconsulate

On Monday, presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new three-day period of demonstrations in Mozambique, starting on Wednesday, in all the provincial capitals, challenging the electoral process.

“We’re going to demonstrate at the borders, in the ports and in the provincial capitals. All 11 provincial capitals (…) We’re going to paralyse all activities so that they realise that the people are tired,” urged Venâncio Mondlane.

The candidate was talking about the “fourth stage” of protest against the general election process on 9 October, which will have “several phases”, to be announced later, and will also be against “kidnappings and abductions” and “against the murder of the people”.

“For three days we will demonstrate. Then we’ll take a break,” he said in the same speech, which he said was made from “exile”, calling for the population in all the districts to gather until Friday in each provincial capital, including Maputo.

He called for the protest to be extended to the country’s ports and borders, and to the transport corridors linking these infrastructures, appealing for lorry drivers to join in.

On the impact of the 7 November national demonstration in Maputo, which led to a day of chaos in the Mozambican capital, he said that it was never his intention to carry out a coup d’état.

“If we wanted to carry out a coup d’état, we would have,” he said, guaranteeing: “We’re not going to give up, we’re not going to back down. Too many people have already been killed”.

At least five people died, 38 were shot and 164 arrested in Mozambique on 7 November, the last day of the third stage of the demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, according to the Mozambican non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plataforma Eleitoral Decide.

Mozambique, and especially Maputo, has been experiencing consecutive stoppages of activities and demonstrations called since 21 October by Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognise the results of the general elections announced by the National Electoral Commission, according to which Daniel Chapo and the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party) won the vote.

The demonstrations, which were mostly violent, left a trail of destruction in Maputo, with reports of deaths, injuries, arrests, destroyed infrastructure and looted shops, especially on 7 November.

According to figures presented by the Mozambican NGO, three of the deaths occurred in Maputo, one in Inhambane province (south), and another in Tete province (centre).

The Decide platform also counted 38 people shot, with the city of Maputo having the highest number of cases (32), and also indicated that of the 164 people arrested in clashes between demonstrators and the police, 61 cases were recorded in the country’s capital.

Source: Lusa