Mozambique’s largely deserted capital was hit yesterday by skirmishes between protesters and police, AFP reporters said, the day after the ruling party was controversially confirmed winners in recent elections. Police in armoured vehicles patrolled the centre of the city, where hundreds of protesters in small, scattered groups threw objects and started fires.
Makeshift roadblocks on major thoroughfares were set alight on Monday evening, covering the city with thick smoke, soon after the country’s highest court confirmed the victory of the ruling Frelimo party presidential candidate Daniel Chapo. Chapo’s main challenger, exiled opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, has claimed the election was rigged, sparking fears of violence between rival party supporters.
Shops, banks, supermarkets, petrol stations and public buildings meanwhile were ransacked, with their windows smashed and contents looted.
Some were set on fire and reduced to smouldering rubble. “Maputo Central Hospital is operating in critical conditions, more than 200 employees have not been able to reach the site,” its director Mouzinho Saide told AFP, adding that nearly 90 people had been admitted with injuries. Forty were injured by firearms and four by knives, he added.
Main roads leading to Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola were blocked by barricades and burning tyres, while the road leading to Maputo airport was largely impassable. Most local residents stayed at home, with the few who ventured out doing to look at the damage or do last-minute Christmas shopping.
Christmas Eve is normally a busy time, with large crowds in central Maputo but shops and even small neighbourhood grocery stores were closed, making petrol and bread unavailable. Public transport was also paralysed, with only ambulances and funeral vehicles running.
The unrest spread to several cities in the northern part of Mozambique, local media reported, with violence and vandalism in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambezia and Tete, where opposition support is strong.
More than 100 people have already died in the unprecedented post-election violence, with fears that the toll could increase after Mondlane’s claim of victory. Mozambicans are demanding “electoral truth”, he said in a Facebook post. “We must continue the fight, remain united and strong.”
Monday’s confirmation of the result of the October 9 election came despite claims of irregularities from many observers. Chapo won 65.17% of the vote, more than five points lower than the initial results declared by the country’s electoral commission.
In the National Assembly, Frelimo has a majority of 171 seats out of 250, down 24 from the announcement in October. “Venancio”, as Mondlane is called on the street, repeated his assertion in a social media message yesterday that the constitutional court was “legalising fraud” and “the humiliation of the people”. “We want to create a People’s Constitutional Court, which will confirm Venancio Mondlane as president,” he said of himself. “I will be sworn in and invested,” he added.
Chapo, who is due to take office in mid-January, struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech on Monday, promising to “talk to everyone”, including his main opponent.
Mining disruptionGemfields Group said yesterday disruptions were possible at its largest ruby mine in Mozambique, after people torched buildings in villages nearby in escalating unrest linked to October’s disputed election. Mozambique’s top court on Monday confirmed long-ruling party Frelimo’s victory in the election that has sparked protests by opposition groups that say the vote was rigged.
At least 130 people have been killed in clashes with police, according to the civil society monitoring group Plataforma Decide, and the operations of other foreign miners operating in Mozambique, including South32, have been affected.
Gemfields said in a statement that “groups associated with the illegal mining and trading of rubies have taken advantage of the political unrest”. It said “instigators” had on Monday set fire to the police station in Namanhumbir, a village close to Gemfields’ Montepuez Ruby Mining Limitada (MRM) in the northern Cabo Delgado province. An MRM office, a community centre and a community radio centre built by the company in Namanhumbir were also set ablaze.
“Based on the trajectory of the ongoing situation, there may be interruptions to MRM’s mining operations resulting from this unrest,” Gemfields said.
In another village near MRM’s operations, a water borehole was sabotaged, and in a third village people torched the police station, the residence of a local police commander and the administrative offices of Namanhumbir district. MRM is 75% owned by Gemfields and employs about 1,400 people, the company’s website says. Frelimo has been repeatedly accused by opponents and election observers of rigging votes, although it has denied those accusations. The electoral commission has not commented on allegations of fraud in this year’s election.