"I Can't Be Protected When People Are Being Slaughtered" - Venâncio Mondlane

Mozambique presidential election candidate Venâncio Mondlane returned to Maputo on Thursday morning after around two and a half months leading the challenge to the results of the general elections from abroad.

"I am here in flesh and blood to say that, if you want to negotiate, if you want to talk to me, if you want to be with me at the negotiating table, I am here," he began by saying in statements to journalists, in Maputo.

"I am here in Mozambique because I realized that the regime has opted for a strategy of creating a kind of silent genocide. People are being kidnapped from their homes, people are being extrajudicially executed in the forests. There is an increase in murders and I don't think that I can be well protected, in the cool, when the people themselves, who support my candidacy, are being massacred", he added.

He also said he returned to Mozambique because "there is a narrative that there are a series of criminal responsibilities" to which he cannot respond because "he is outside the country". "I am here to show that I am willing to defend myself before the courts and prove who is truly responsible for the heinous crimes that have taken place to date," he explained.

At issue is the fact that the Mozambican Public Prosecutor's Office opened proceedings against the presidential candidate, as the mastermind behind the demonstrations contesting the results of the general elections of October 9.

Venâncio Mondlane added that he wanted to be an "active and available historical subject" in Mozambique and that he would continue to "defend and fight" for the Mozambican people.

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane arrived today at around 08:20 in Maputo after two and a half months leading the opposition to the general election results from outside and under heavy security measures in the airport area.

It is worth noting that clashes between the police and protesters have already caused almost 300 deaths and more than 500 people shot since October 21, according to civil society organizations following the process.

The Constitutional Council (CC) of Mozambique has set January 15 as the date for the inauguration of the new President, who succeeds Filipe Nyusi.

On December 23, the CC, the last instance of appeal in electoral disputes, proclaimed Daniel Chapo, candidate supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power), as the winner of the presidential election, with 65.17% of the votes, as well such as the victory of Frelimo, which maintained its parliamentary majority.

The announcement immediately led to new clashes, destruction of public and private property, demonstrations, strikes and looting, but in the last week, without new calls for protests, the situation has returned to normal throughout the country.