Whistles, horns and tear gas marked the year in which Mozambique experienced its worst protest against the election results, with more than 100 people killed in clashes between the police and supporters of the pastor who was facing the "Frelimo machine".
On the morning of October 9, more than eight million Mozambicans, out of a total of 17 million, went to the polls in the seventh general elections, a vote that would be marked by a series of demonstrations of repudiation of the results announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE).
The results released almost 15 days later attributed the victory to Daniel Chapo in the presidential elections, with 70.67% of the votes, and, in the legislative elections, to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party, in power since independence (1975), starting a protest movement led by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, a religious leader who abandoned the two main opposition parties in Mozambique to face, alone, the party that has governed the country for almost 50 years.
On the afternoon of October 24, while the president of the CNE, Carlos Matsinhe, announced the results in one of the most prestigious conference rooms in Maputo, smoke from burning tires filled the skies of the main streets in the suburbs of the capital, starting a series of clashes between the police and the protesters, which spread throughout the country.
Three days earlier, the police had already fired tear gas at a group of people who tried to demonstrate at the site of the double homicide, by shooting, on the night of October 18, of two Mondlane allies, one of whom was his lawyer, Elvino Dias.
The gas was thrown at the site when Mondlane was making statements to journalists, appealing for calm during the march he had called, forcing the politician to flee, a moment captured by several national and international media outlets.
With more than a hundred dead and nearly 350 injured by gunshots, the clashes between the police and the protesters continued in the weeks that followed, bringing chaos to the streets, paralyzing several urban centers, with blockades on the main highways, even in the capital, and even temporarily closing the main border with South Africa, Ressano Garcia.
The wave of demonstrations led to the blocking of avenues, honking of horns and banging of pots and pans in the main urban centers.
Mondlane, who left the country days after the double murder of his allies, has been the voice of command for the demonstrations, through his live broadcasts on the social network Facebook, followed mainly by the younger generation.
His main opponents talk about taking advantage of the socio-political weaknesses of a country where statistics indicate that, out of a population of 32 million Mozambicans, around 9.4 million are young people, a third of whom have no employment, education or professional training.
But those who follow him see a "new proposal" to, as his slogan states, "save Mozambique", a country that is among the poorest despite its notable potential, especially in mineral resources.
"For the new Mozambican youth, the discourse of historical demands by those who brought liberation or fought for democracy no longer makes sense. The new youth want jobs", political analyst Alberto da Cruz argued to Lusa.
In some places, the streets of Maputo still show signs of the clashes, including traces of burnt tires and some vandalized stores. The protests were described by the authorities as an attempt to "subvert the established constitutional order" and were financed by "some civil society organizations and individuals acting in bad faith."
Despite calls for restraint by the police, chaos and strikes have marked several days in recent months. However, the running over of a young woman in the middle of the protests by an armored military vehicle traveling at high speed, in a scenario of extreme violence, once again drew the world's attention to Mozambique.
The incident, whose images were captured by the media and several people who were at the scene, angered the protesters.
But even before the elections, Mozambique was once again in the world's spotlight, with a new wave of attacks in February towards the south of Cabo Delgado, a province that has been terrorized by rebel groups associated with the state since 2017. Islamic.
More than 67,000 people fled their homelands and the incursions were justified by the executive as the result of the "movement of small groups of terrorists" who left their barracks (...) towards the south of Cabo Delgado, after a period of relative stability.
Several other rebel incursions were recorded in the months that followed, the largest of which was the attack on 10 and 11 May in the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents looting the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces and the Rwandan military, which is supporting the country in the fight against the rebels.
Although authorities claim that things are returning to normal, TotalEnergies' natural gas exploration project, budgeted at $25 billion (23.7 billion dollars) and classified as one of the largest investments in Africa, remains suspended, although the company's chairman assures that almost 80% of the $14 billion (13.26 billion euros) needed for the mega gas project in Cabo Delgado has been guaranteed.
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