Twenty-one people died in the post-election violence that broke out over the past twenty-four hours in Mozambique, including two police officers, announced the Minister of the Interior, Pascoal Ronda, during a press conference held on Tuesday, December 24 in the evening.
In total, 236 “serious acts of violence” were recorded in this Portuguese-speaking country in southern Africa, also leaving 25 injured including 13 police officers, after the confirmation by the Constitutional Council, Monday, December 23, of the election of Daniel Chapo, Frelimo candidate in the presidential election on October 9.
“Groups of men using bladed weapons and firearms carried out attacks against police stations, detention centers and other infrastructure”said the minister.
At least 130 dead in two months
Twenty-five vehicles were set on fire, including two belonging to the police. Eleven police stations were attacked in the country, as well as a prison from which 86 inmates escaped, he further detailed to the press.
Four road toll booths, three hospitals and ten Frelimo headquarters were also attacked, Pascoal Ronda said, and 70 people were arrested.
The opposition denounces massive fraud and demands a “electoral justice”calling for demonstrations to denounce the confirmation of these results by the Constitutional Council, which it considers subservient to power. Electoral irregularities were raised by a number of observers during the presidential election.
Two months of demonstrations, strikes and blockades have already cost the lives of at least 130 people, most of them demonstrators killed with live ammunition, according to the local NGO Plataforma Decide.
Read also | Mozambique: the Constitutional Council confirms the victory of Frelimo, the ruling party
Read later
