After Monday’s ratification of contested October elections, a new wave of protests is under way.
At least 21 people have been killed in unrest since Mozambique’s top court confirmed the governing party Frelimo’s victory in disputed elections, the interior minister says.
The dead include at least two police officers, Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda said at a news conference on Tuesday.
A total of “236 acts of serious violence were reported” since Monday across the Portuguese-speaking African country, in which at least 25 people were wounded, including 13 police officers, he said.
The protests began after Frelimo was confirmed the winner by the Constitutional Council. Protesters and opposition groups say the October 9 vote was rigged.
Seventy-eight people have been arrested so far and security measures have been tightened across the country, Ronda told public broadcaster TVM. “The armed forces will increase their presence in critical and key points,” he said.
Frelimo has been repeatedly accused by opponents and election observers of rigging votes. It has denied the accusations.
As soon as the top court announced the governing party’s Daniel Chapo had won the presidential election, supporters of the opposition candidate, Venancio Mondlane, began protesting on Monday night.
Protesters have been accused of attacking and vandalising police stations, petrol stations, banks and other public facilities.
Reporting from Maputo, Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa said the protesters burned tyres and blocked roads.
“This was their way of shutting down Mozambique,” she said. “People say they are tired of years of corruption and unemployment.”
Mutasa said some young men were asking motorists for money to drive through some places. “While these protests may have started off over the election result, it seems some elements have come in to try and infiltrate them,” she said.
Mozambique has seen violent protests since late October when the electoral authorities declared 47-year-old Chapo the winner of the presidential election.
More than 130 people have been killed since October 21, according to human rights and civil society groups that have also accused Mozambican security forces of using excessive violence to quell the protests.
After Monday’s announcement by the Constitutional Council, Mondlane asked his supporters on social media to brace themselves for “difficult days ahead”.
“History is made of thorny, rocky moments, but the truth is that victory is guaranteed for all of us,” Mondlane wrote on Facebook.