The march was called following the shooting on Sunday of Joel Amaral, an ally of former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, in central Mozambique.
On Saturday (19), in the centre of Maputo, the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) prevented a march by a group of young people who wanted to protest against the ‘persecution and shootings’ of activists and political opponents in Mozambique.
The march, which was being promoted by a group of well-known social activists, was due to start at the Eduardo Mondlane statue in the centre of Maputo at around 8.30am (minus one hour in Lisbon).
The destination was the Attorney General’s Office, where the demonstrators intended to submit a document protesting against the lack of clarification on the shooting of figures critical of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).
Several groups from the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR), the riot police, took over the place where the march was due to begin, heavily armed contingents with armoured vehicles and at least one truck equipped with water jet cannons.
This is further clear proof that the handshake between Daniel Chapo [the Mozambican president sworn in in January] and Venâncio Mondlane [the politician who led the post-election demonstrations in recent months] was only for the English [to see]. Today, after we communicated and followed all the required protocols, we shouldn’t be prevented from marching,’ activist Clemente Carlos, one of the organisers of the initiative, told Lusa.
Although they were prevented from staying at the statue, the demonstrators tried to walk along Eduardo Mondlane Avenue, but after almost a kilometre, the authorities, without firing a shot, forced the group to leave the site.
‘You have three minutes to get out of here,’ declared a commander of one of the units, while members of the protection force forced the young people with placards to leave, sometimes by force.
‘We just wanted to march and submit a document to stop all these killings. Because we’ve never seen any public crime like this tried, we’ve never seen the police themselves, who have fired on the population at various times, tried,’ Inocêncio Manhique, another activist at the march, told Lusa.
The march was called following the shooting on Sunday of Joel Amaral, an ally of former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, in the centre of Mozambique. Amaral, who is in ‘intensive care although doing well’, was shot in the Cualane 2 neighbourhood, in the city of Quelimane, Zambezia province, by a group travelling in an off-road vehicle, while the victim was on a bicycle.
Joel Amaral is a musician and the author of songs that mobilised Mondlane’s supporters in the municipal (2023) and then presidential (2024) election campaigns.
Venâncio Mondlane, who labelled the shooting of Amaral as another case of ‘political intolerance’, threatened to call for protests ‘100 times worse’ if the ‘political persecution’ of his supporters continues.
Mondlane, who rejects the results of the October 9 elections, has led, over the last five months, the worst contestation of the election results the country has seen since the first multiparty elections (1994), with protests in which around 390 people lost their lives in clashes with the police, according to data from civil society organisations, also degenerating into looting and destruction of businesses and public infrastructure.
The Mozambican government previously confirmed at least 80 deaths, as well as the destruction of 1,677 commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 health centres during the demonstrations.
However, on 23 March, Mondlane and Daniel Chapo, now President, met for the first time and a commitment was made to stop the violence in the country.
‘I was obliged to go and shake hands with the President who had been appointed by the National Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Council because they assured me that the persecution, killings and kidnappings would stop. But with what happened to Joel Amaral, are they complying?’ the politician questioned the day after Amaral was shot.
Shortly after the 2024 general elections, Venâncio Mondlane’s legal advisor, lawyer Elvino Dias, and the head of Podemos, Paulo Cuambe, the party that supported his presidential candidacy, were shot dead in the centre of Maputo, a crime that caused a stir in Mozambican society and remains unclear.
The Mozambican President reacted to the shooting of Joel Amaral by labelling it an ‘affront to democracy’ and calling for a ‘full investigation’.
Lusa
