Luisa Nhantumbo / Lusa
Venâncio Mondlane speaks in Maputo
“It is not known if it’s okay” and no one can talk to him. Mozambique’s opposition leader disappeared in the middle of a police attack that shot 16 people, 2 children.
The team of former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Wednesday that he is unaware of the whereabouts of the Mozambican politician after police shots to disperse a crowd that accompanied him in a march in Maputo.
According to a statement issued this Wednesday by the former candidate’s team, when the shots began, the Caravan “dismembered” And it is not possible to contact Mondlane, whose march, challenged around 1 pm (two hours less in Lisbon), in the neighborhood of Hulene, along the Julius Nyerere Avenue, heading towards the Combatintes Square, after leaving Youth Square, in the Magoanine neighborhood, in the suburbs of Maputo.
“You haven’t been able to talk to him so far and it is not known if the president is well,” he said in statements to Lusa, Abdul Nose, of the former presidential candidate, using the word “president” to refer to Mondlane, who is actually opposing the country’s current president Daniel Chapo.
At least 16 people, including two children, were shot this morning Among the supporters who accompanied the march, he advanced the decide platform, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that accompanies the electoral processes.
A member of the Mondlane entourage is among the injured during the Mozambican police shots, said his team’s source, without further details.
In protest against caravan shots, popular today blocked one of the main access avenues to various neighborhoods in Maputo’s suburbs, on a day when an agreement was signed to wag the post-election crisis.
Mozambican police It was positioned in all main roads and avenues They give access to the Joaquim Chissano Conference Center, where the political agreement between the president of Mozambique and party formations under the ongoing dialogue was signed.
Mozambique has lived since October a climate of strong social agitation, with demonstrations and stoppages called by Mondlane, who rejects the electoral results of October 9, who gave victory to Daniel Chapo.
Currently, the protests, now on a small scale, have been occurring in different parts of the country and, in addition to the contestation of results, popular complain about the increase in cost of living and other social problems.
Since October, at least 353 people have diedincluding about two dozen minors, according to the platform decides.
The Mozambican government confirmed at least 80 deaths, in addition to the destruction of 1,677 commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 sanitary units during the demonstrations.
