Maputo — The number of victims of clashes between demonstrators and police in Mozambique has risen to 30 since protests broke out three weeks ago over alleged fraud in the October 9 elections (see Fides, 8/11/2024), according to human rights organizations. There is no end in sight to the demonstrations after candidate Venancio Mondlane, of the opposition PODEMOS party, who came second in the presidential election behind candidate Daniel Chapo of FRELIMO (Mozambican Liberation Front, in power since 1975), announced three more days of protests starting November 13.
Mondlane also invoked the "right to self-defense"by the demonstrators.
The Minister of Defense, meanwhile, warned of a possible military intervention, as the stability of the state is threatened.
The members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), which brings together the bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini, expressed their solidarity with the bishops of Mozambique in a message in which they again appealed to the "authorities to address the causes of discontent" following the October 9 parliamentary elections.
"We join in the appeal to the authorities to address the causes of discontent surrounding these elections and to respect the will of the Mozambican people," says the letter, signed by the President of the SACBC and Bishop of Umtata, Sithembele Anton Sipuka.
Referring to the report of IMBISA (Inter-regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa, which includes the Bishops' Conferences of Angola and Sao Tome, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the SACBC) electoral observers, the message stresses that "the elections took place in a context of great discontent and a strong popular demand for strengthening the rule of law and greater transparency in electoral administration".
The Bishops' Conference of Mozambique had also declared that the October 9 election was marked by serious irregularities, denouncing "serious fraud, repeated insertion of ballots already voted into the ballot box, as well as false reports".
