Mozambique's Opposition Leader Calls for New Wave of Protests After Alleged Killings

This comes as hundreds of Mozambicans, many of them young people, have taken to the streets in protest after the country’s October 9 election. According to Human Rights Watch, post-election protests were met with violent repression from the country’s security forces, resulting in at least 11 deaths and dozens of injuries.

Political researcher and election observer Rufus Maculuve tells OkayAfrica that this is the “most severe post-electoral violence” Mozambique has experienced. He adds that frustrations over monumental corruption scandals and lack of basic services have driven citizens to the streets. “We, like most other African countries, are a country of young people. If you don’t take care of them, then there’ll be [problems],” he says.

Protests began on October 21 ahead of the election results announcement after the brutal murder of two high-ranking opposition officials the weekend before; Mondlane accused Mozambique’s security forces of the killings. The protests intensified after Daniel Chapo of the ruling party, Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo), was announced as the winner of the vote.

Filipa, DJ and events promoter, recalls the atmosphere on the night when the protests began. “We could hear helicopters circulating, [we could hear] what sounded like bombs, but it was the teargas going off. We could see smoke burning. It was a really weird, dystopian feeling, especially at night,” she says, questioning whether Mozambique has effectively become a police state.

Despite this, the protests continued following the announcement of the results on October 24, leading to the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators across the country, according to the police. Filipa says she felt proud and inspired seeing people fight for their country. “It’s beautiful to see [the protests], even though there are a lot of people being killed, and it’s rough in some neighborhoods. It’s really scary to see that this is actually police brutality at its full force, but it’s beautiful to see that people are actually standing up.”

By last Friday, mobile internet services were cut off, with only WiFi services functioning minimally. Professor Adriano Nuvunga, Director of Mozambique’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, publicly condemned the shutdown in a post on X. “Dear President [Filipe] Nyusi, shutting down the internet and blocking communications is a severe violation of human rights,” he said.

For Maputo-based filmmaker who prefers to go by the name Jeremias Machili, the interruption in internet services meant that he could not post on his social platforms, where his audience and potential clientele are. “It compromises almost everything, from contacting people — family, my clients. Most of my business is on the internet,” he says. “On the same day they cut the internet, I had a second job to film, and I couldn’t get Yango (a ride-hailing app) from one town to another,” Machili says. Though services resumed on Saturday, mobile providers only issued an apology with free data compensation, leaving Machili and others frustrated by the lack of transparency.

Normalcy has been restored in some Mozambican cities, according to local reports, but this could be short-lived following Mondlane’s latest call for demonstrations. While it’s unclear when this demonstration is scheduled for, Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Pedomos), a small, recently-created opposition party who backed Mondlane’s presidential bid, has made its official move against the results by filing an appeal at the country’s Constitutional Council, stating that Mondlane won the polls by 53.3 percent.