On images broadcast by the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, some raise their fists in victory, others still have their hands handcuffed. Wednesday December 25, “1,534 inmates escaped” from a high security prison located around fifteen kilometers from the Mozambican capital, Maputo. Among the escapees, the Burkinabè daily The Country lists “dangerous jihadists, who distinguished themselves in violence in the province of Cabo Delgado”. According to the head of the national police, cited by the website -, 33 fugitives died, and 15 others were injured in the clashes that broke out with prison staff. Al-Jazeera adds that “150 prisoners on the run” have already been found and arrested by the authorities.
Bloody protests
But then what happened? According to The Country, the prisoners would have “took advantage of the confusion linked to the electoral protest demonstrations led by the opposition to escape”. And for good reason: since the announcement of the results of the presidential elections on October 9, the country is “on the verge of civil war”, reminiscent of everyday life. While the Constitutional Council confirmed that it was once again a candidate from Frelimo, the party in power since the country's independence in 1975, who had won, opposition groups denounce a “rigged ballot”, reports Al-Jazeera. Since then, the country has been plagued by numerous unrest, which has already caused 252 deaths, including 125 in just three days, according to a count released Thursday, December 26 by Plataforma Decide, an NGO with a serious and whose data is regularly taken up by Amnesty International.
Pour The Country, the question that now arises is whether “whether it is necessary to establish a causal link between this spectacular escape of prisoners and the opposition demonstrations”. Many gray areas still remain to be clarified on this affair which, according to the Burkinabe daily, is due either to a major security problem in the prison, or to “an act of sabotage which would possibly involve internal complicity”. - reported for his part that, shortly before the escape, “Groups of demonstrators approached the central prison and created confusion, sparking unrest within the prison.” But the Mozambican Ministry of Justice affirms on the contrary that the unrest which broke out in the prison “have nothing to do with the protesters” who passed in front of the prison building.
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