Mozambique: Two Anamola Leaders Gunned Down and Another Attacked in Three Weeks

Attacks of members of Venancio Mondlane's party Anamola (National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique) continue:

+ On 16 May in Mucambene, Massagena, Gaza, gunmen stormed into the house of activist Pedro Chauke and shot him dead, and fled in his car.
+ On 9 May Manica provincial coordinator Mouzinho Manasse was leaving a party meeting on the main street of Chimoio, Manica, and was killed in a drive-by shooting. He had only been named to his post a month earlier.
+ On 29 April the treasurer of the local branch in Zimpeto, Maputo city, known as Capitao, was kidnapped in broad daylight, badly beaten, including with two broken legs, and then dumped in Boquisso, Matola, 15 km away.
The Mozambican NGO Decide has become the most respected scorekeeper of attacks and killings. It reports that since July last year there have been more the 23 attacks on opposition party members, most on Anamola but some on the other opposition party Podemos. There have been no arrests. (MZ News, AIM, DW Africa)

Amnesty International (19 May) labelled this a "disturbing pattern of killings or enforced disappearances of opposition party members in the recent past". Amnesty said "Mozambican authorities must ensure prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigations into the killings of Pedro Joao Chaúque and other opposition figures."

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Venancio Mondlane's lawyer Elvino Dias and agent Paulo Guambe were gunned down by what looked like a police hit squad on 19 October 2024, just 10 days after the fraudulent presidential election. Mondlane was called to give evidence to the Public Prosecutor's office on 14 May this year. Afterward he gave a press conference in which he said they appeared to be just starting their investigation. "A year and eight months on, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has no evidence, no leads – absolutely nothing regarding the deaths." He noted that there were two banks with surveillance cameras near the scene of the killings and other cameras on the getaway route, but no attempt was made to look at the videos.

It is not just opposition activists. On 17 April lawyer Amisse Abel Nota Passe went to Police Station 5 in Matola to assist someone who had been arrested. Instead he was thrown into a jail cell and badly beaten by 7 police officers. The Bar Association (Ordem dos Advogados de Moçambique - OAM) on 13 May formally submitted a complaint demanding criminal charges against those involved. (OAM, CDD)