PAULO JULIAO/EPA
Mozambique has been under fire since Monday, when the official results of the general elections were announced. More than 1,500 inmates escaped from the maximum security prison in Maputo. 33 people died.
At least 1534 inmates escaped from the maximum security Maputo Central Prison on Wednesday afternoon. According to the general commander of the police, 33 people died.
“We expect in the next 48 hours a dizzying rise in all types of crime in the city of Maputo”, said Bernardino Rafael, in a press conference in the early evening, ensuring that among the escaped prisoners, of whom only 150 were recapturedthere were some “highly dangerous terrorists”.
“A curious fact is that in that prison we had 29 convicted terrorists, who they released. We are worried, as a country, as Mozambicans, as members of the Defense and Security Forces”, said Bernardino Rafael.
According to the general commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), the escape from the Maputo Central Prison, located in the city of Matola, 14 kilometers from the center of the Mozambican capital and which had around 2500 convicts and detainees, took place around 1pm local time (11am in Lisbon), resulting from the “agitation” of a “group of subversive protesters” nearby.
“Making noise, in their demonstrations, demanding that they be able to remove the prisoners who are serving their sentences there”, described Bernardino Rafael, explaining that this action caused “unrest” inside the prison, which led to the collapse of a wall, allowing escapedespite the “immediate confrontation” with prison guards.
“This confrontation resulted [em] 33 deaths, in direct confrontation with prisoners. In the vicinity of the Central Prison, 15 were injured”, he went on to call for the voluntary surrender of the escaped prisoners and for the population to be informed about these fugitives.
According to the PRM commander, in the last 24 hours there was another similar case of escape, in Manhiça Prison, north of Maputo province, in which protesters freed prisoners, and an attempt in Mabalane Prison.
Panic in Mozambique
Mozambique is experiencing the fourth consecutive day of chaos in the streets, following the announcement of the final results of the general elections, with looting, vandalization and barricades, particularly in Maputo.
On Monday afternoon, the Constitutional Council of Mozambique proclaimed Daniel Chapo, a candidate supported by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, in power), as the winner of the President of the Republic, with 65.17% of the votes, succeeding in the position the Filipe Nyusi, as well as the victory of Frelimo, which maintained its parliamentary majority, in the general elections on October 9th.
This announcement caused chaos across the country, with pro-Venâncio Mondlane protesters – who according to the Constitutional Council obtained only 24% of the votes – in the streets, barricades, looting and clashes with the police, who have been firing shots to try to demobilization.
At least 56 people died in Mozambique since Monday, following the challenge to the results of the Mozambican general elections, and 152 were shot, according to a report made today by the electoral platform Decide.
According to a survey by the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that monitors electoral processes in Mozambique, with data from December 23 and 24, 31 of the fatalities were recorded in the province of Sofala, in the center of the country, and nine in Nampula , in the north, in addition to six in Maputo (city and province), in the south.
Of the 152 people injured by bullets, that NGO accounts for 56 in the city of Maputo and many others in Sofala, also indicating a total of 102 arrests, 40 of which in the capital city, where a person is missing.
