The Rapid Intervention Unit of the Mozambican police fired shots on Wednesday to disperse demonstrators who had blocked the main road linking Mozambican regions, in Bobole, in the Marracuane district of Maputo province.
The demonstrators, mainly traders from a local market, blocked National Road Number 1 (EN1) early Tuesday evening in Bobole, 50 kilometres from the centre of Maputo. They forced a lorry driver to leave his vehicle in the middle of the road.
To disperse the group, at around 10:00 local time today (08:00 in Lisbon), the police, using an armoured vehicle and two other police cars, fired live ammo and tear gas canisters.
The operation, which included the throwing of tear gas grenades, created chaos in Bobole, with dozens of screaming demonstrators fleeing inside the market, which is located along the road.
‘The population is angry, especially now that they’ve started shooting,’ Jaime Marcos, a resident of Bobole, told Lusa.
By late morning in Maputo, the road was unblocked, but there was a strong police apparatus, which, as well as guarding the site, escorted some lorries to safer points.
As well as the repeated demand for ‘electoral truth’, among the main reasons for the group’s protest is the cost of living, especially cement.
‘We’re not here to steal anything. We want them to lower the price of products, especially cement, because our president Venâncio Mondlane (the candidate defeated in the presidential elections) has already said that the price of cement has to go down,’ Lara Lileme, a shopkeeper who was among the protesters, told Lusa.
The population accuses the authorities of having shot people during the operations, threatening to block the main road linking the south, centre and north of the country again at that point.
‘They’re firing real bullets, and they’ve been shooting people here. This won’t stop. Let them reduce the price of things or talk to our president. We listened to our president, Cornélio Mata, another protester, told Lusa, referring not to the President but always to Venâncio Mondlane as the winner of the October elections.
Bobole was one of the points where clashes between police and protesters were most intense during the last three months of the post-election crisis, and it was also one of the first points that former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane visited since his return to Mozambique on 9 January.
Mozambique is experiencing grave social unrest, protests, demonstrations and stoppages, called by Mondlane, who does not accept the election results, with clashes between police and demonstrators, which have caused at least 315 deaths and around 750 people shot, according to the electoral platform Decide. This non-governmental organisation monitors electoral processes.
Lusa
