At least a dozen people were injured after Mozambican police violently dispersed a protest led by opposition leader Ven\u00e2ncio Mondlane, the runner-up in last year\u2019s disputed presidential election, Mondlane\u2019s team and a civil society group say.<\/p>\n
Eyewitnesses and Mondlane\u2019s aides said the police fired live rounds at the opposition leader\u2019s convoy and the anti-government protesters who had joined him on the streets of the capital, Maputo, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Neither the police nor the authorities have commented.<\/p>\n
The protests came as President Daniel Chapo, who took office in January, was due to sign a deal after talks with other political parties to end months of protests over the disputed election.<\/p>\n
Mondlane, who has been calling for the protests, was excluded from the talks leading to the ceremony.<\/p>\n
A communique from Mondlane\u2019s office said the opposition leader had been leading a procession on Wednesday afternoon when his convoy came under fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cA contingent of the UIR [a rapid intervention police unit] rammed into Ven\u00e2ncio Mondlane\u2019s convoy and began a barrage of gunfire, using live ammunition and tear gas,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
In response to the incident, Interior Minister Paulo Chachine told reporters that the police had a mission to prevent any attempt to disrupt the deal-signing ceremony.<\/p>\n
He denied that there had been an attempt to kill Mondlane.<\/p>\n
Sixteen people were injured, according to local civil society group Plataforma Decide. The BBC has not been able to confirm the casualty figures.<\/p>\n
Mondlane\u2019s team said two children from a nearby school had died from the shooting. It said 16 people had been injured, including their camera person, with others seriously affected by tear gas.<\/p>\n
In a statement, it said Mondlane\u2019s condition was \u201cunknown, and his whereabouts are causing concern among his entire team\u201d.<\/p>\n
A video shared on social media shows the moment when gunshots started ringing out as the procession approached what looks like an armoured vehicle on the streets. People run for safety and the crowds disappear, while the gunfire continues.<\/p>\n
More images of people bloodied from the incident have also been shared online.<\/p>\n
A witness, who was among the protesters, told the AFP news agency that police had started shooting, as if it was an \u201cambush scenario. It was just a march\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw some people bleeding from their wounds. My friend was wounded in the leg. I also saw a child who was shot and lost his life in hospital,\u201d AFP quoted 27-year old protester Silvestre Alexandre as saying.<\/p>\n
Mozambique\u2019s former colonial power, Portugal, has condemned \u201cthe unacceptable attack on Ven\u00e2ncio Mondlane\u2019s convoy\u201d while calling for \u201crestraint from violence and respect for fundamental rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, the Portuguese foreign affairs ministry has also offered condolences to the bereavedfamilies.<\/p>\n
Since President Chapo took over in January, he has made promises for a broad political dialogue that would include various sectors of the society, in order to end the country\u2019s post-election crisis.<\/p>\n
Some analysts have however criticised him for excluding Mondlane from the talks.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Mondlane condemned the political deal, calling it \u201can agreement of people without the people\u201d. He said that protests would continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t do what the people want, they won\u2019t govern Mozambique,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since October, close to 400 people have died in violence linked to the protests, according to civil society organisations.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least a dozen people were injured after Mozambican police violently dispersed a protest led by opposition leader Ven\u00e2ncio Mondlane, the runner-up in last year\u2019s disputed presidential election, Mondlane\u2019s team and a civil society group say. Eyewitnesses and Mondlane\u2019s aides said the police fired live rounds at the opposition leader\u2019s convoy and the anti-government protesters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}