Clashes rocked several cities across Mozambique on Thursday as the opposition shrugged off internet restrictions to rally nationwide strikes over a disputed presidential election.Despite Mozambique blocking social media access for a second time in a week, protesters took to the streets across the southern African country to voice their anger at the victorious ruling party, which has promised to crack down on disorder.In the capital Maputo and its most populous city Matola, gatherings gave way to clashes with the police, AFP journalists saw.Witnesses meanwhile told AFP that the demonstrations likewise turned violent in the northern cities of Lichinga, Pebane and Tete.It is the third wave of action since the ruling Frelimo party won an October 9 vote that opposition parties and electoral observers said was flawed.Earlier on Thursday, Mozambicans had woken up to the news that WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, platforms often used by opposition leader Venancio Mondlane to rally his supporters, were inaccessible.”We can confirm social media restrictions have been imposed in Mozambique,” London-based internet watchdog NetBlocks said.Last Friday, a temporary internet blackout was introduced, a day after presidential and parliamentary election results were announced by the electoral commission and protests were violently suppressed. NetBlocks said at the time that there was a “near-total disruption to mobile internet connectivity in Mozambique”. Daniel Chapo, 47, representing Frelimo, the party in power for 49 years, was declared winner of the presidential race, with almost 71 percent of votes.Mondlane, 50, of the small Podemos party, came second with 20 percent but said the results were “false”. After the announcement, police cracked down on opposition supporters who took to the streets, using “live bullets, tear gas and (making) arbitrary arrests,” according to Amnesty International.”Authorities must immediately halt their escalating assault on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” the rights’ group Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa Khanyo Farise said.Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that at least 11 people were killed by security forces and more than 50 others were injured on October 24 and 25. Police did not respond to HRW and Amnesty’s statements but previously said that 20 people were injured in post-electoral violence and that two people had died, without giving details. A police investigation was opened into Mondlane following the unrest and his calls for “25 days of terror”. His whereabouts remain unknown. But the former radio host-turned-politician again called for a nationwide strike from October 31 to November 7.- Call to ‘paralyse’ country -Several demonstrators on Thursday heeded his call to “paralyse” the country from northern Cabo Delgado to Maputo, more than 2,400 kilometres (about 1,500 miles) away.The capital was a ghost town in the run-up to the protests, while unrest-hit Tete saw a strong police presence and demonstrators gathered in the northern city of Nampula, according to an AFP reporter. Police sent out text messages on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, including to an AFP reporter, instructing residents not to participate in acts of “sabotage”. Police chief Bernardino Rafael blamed Podemos for inciting violence and said “a seven-day demonstration is a threat to the life of the country because we will be paralysed and unable to work.”The public prosecutor also issued a statement saying that while it was a “fundamental right” to protest, “anyone who… causes material or personal damage shall be punished”. Responding to police accusations, Podemos president Albino Forquilha said he would “do everything to ensure that there is no violence” during the planned week-long strike “but we need to fight for justice”.Election observers, including from the European Union, have noted serious flaws before, during and after the vote. Mondlane and the Podemos party, which overshadowed the main opposition Renamo party in the election, on Sunday appealed to the Constitutional Court for a ballot recount. The judicial body has since requested results sheets and minutes of polling stations in six provinces and Maputo from the electoral commission, giving them eight days to produce the documents.
Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:54:52 GMT
