Background

General elections took place on 9 October. Large-scale protests were prompted by allegations from opposition members and independent observers of vote-rigging. On 19 October, unidentified gunmen killed Paulo Guambe, an official for the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS), and Elvino Dias, the lawyer for Venâncio Mondlane, an independent presidential candidate backed by PODEMOS, in the capital, Maputo. On 21 October, in response to the killings, Venâncio Mondlane called for 25 days of nationwide peaceful protests. On 23 December the Constitutional Council confirmed presidential candidate Daniel Chapo and his party, the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), as the winners, continuing Frelimo’s almost 50-year rule.

The government failed to take adequate measures to protect agricultural production from the effects of the prolonged drought caused by the El Niño effect. Drought affected about 1.8 million people, particularly women from the southern and central regions. In Vanduzi district, Manica province, food insecurity increased.

Cyclone Chido resulted in 94 deaths and displaced or otherwise affected 622,000 people in northern Mozambique.

Excessive and unnecessary use of force

Protests erupted following disputed election results to which police responded with violence, using live ammunition and tear gas. At least 277 people died, including two children and two bystanders, and at least 600 others had been injured by 29 December. Authorities took no steps to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice.

On 10 October, police shot and injured two opposition party election observers, one in the George Dimitrov neighbourhood of Maputo city, and the other in Bandua neighbourhood in Buzi district, Sofala province, after they attempted to break into polling stations to prevent alleged electoral fraud. On 16 October a protester was injured by police gunfire in Nampula city during a PODEMOS rally to welcome Venâncio Mondlane. On 21 October, police deployed helicopters to fire tear gas at the population in Maxaquene neighbourhood, the epicentre of Maputo city’s protests. Some of the tear gas canisters hit people, including children, while they were in their homes. On 24 October, two men and a woman were shot dead in the cities of Nampula, Chimoio and Tete respectively; the woman was shot in the head while inside her house. On the same day, dozens of protesters were admitted to hospitals with bullet wounds in these cities as well as in Maputo. One week later, two demonstrators were killed by police gunshot in marketplaces in Nampula city, one of them while he was in a café. On the same day, three protesters were killed in Mecanhelas district, Niassa province, when police fired live ammunition.

On 1 November, police shot dead a man after he, along with other protesters, damaged Frelimo party offices in Mecubúri district, Nampula province. On 4 November, police killed at least four people, including two children, in the Magoanine and Hulene neighbourhoods of Maputo. On the same day, in Matola city a man was killed by a police bullet in the Mahlampsene neighbourhood and police helicopters fired tear gas in the Patrice Lumumba neighbourhood. Meanwhile, police shot dead two protesters and 23 others were injured, eight of them seriously, in Meconta district, Nampula province. On 13 November police shot dead seven protesters and wounded dozens in the Namicopo neighbourhood of Nampula city when protesters marched towards Waresta market. On 26 November an army vehicle ran over a woman during a protest in Maputo city. One month later, police shot dead a blogger when he filmed police firing tear gas at protesters in Ressano Garcia, Maputo province. Between 23 and 25 December, police killed 88 protesters nationwide.

On 25 December, security forces killed at least 35 people who had escaped from a maximum-security prison in Maputo.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Police increasingly cracked down on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

On 4 June, tens of heavily armed Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) (riot police) officers dispersed about 200 former agents of the National Service of Popular Security, most of them older people, who were camping outside the UN Development Programme offices in Maputo city. They were demanding compensation they claimed was owed to them under a 1992 peace agreement. Two journalists filming the story were attacked by police officers and had their camera seized.

Following Venâncio Mondlane’s call for 25 days of peaceful protests on 21 October, (see Background), the police repressed the majority of protests using excessive and unnecessary force in the cities of Maputo, Matola, Chimoio, Tete and Nampula, in Moamba and Mecanhelas districts, and elsewhere. On the day of the call to protest, police repressed a protest attended by Venâncio Mondlane in Joaquim Chissano Avenue, Maputo city. Three days later, also in Maputo, police fired tear gas at student protesters in Mao Tse Tung Avenue, forcing them to retreat. Police stopped a protest taking place a few miles from the president’s office located in Julius Nyerere Avenue, and another in Moamba district, close to the town of Ressano Garcia on the border with South Africa. On 7 and 13 November, police used tear gas to prevent protesters from marching between Matola and Maputo, as well as in Nampula city. Between 5 and 25 December, police repressed more than 10 protests in the cities of Maputo, Matola and Nampula.

Arbitrary arrests and detentions

Police continued to use arbitrary arrests and detentions. Before and after the elections, hundreds were arrested for their support or membership of PODEMOS, while thousands were arrested for joining protests between 21 October and 29 December. Many remained in detention at the end of the year.

On 9 February, civil society activist Joaquim Pachoneia was arrested in Nampula city for inciting violence and “insulting” the president and the police force. He was released on bail on 12 February. On 3 September, three people were arrested in Dondo district, Sofala province, for allegedly attacking members of the opposition Democratic Movement of Mozambique party. On 15 September a PODEMOS member was arrested in Tete city, accused of damaging the Frelimo flag. During the PODEMOS rally on 16 October (see above, Excessive and unnecessary use of force), musician David Calisto Bandeira was arrested and charged with inciting violence for his pro-PODEMOS songs. He was released hours later on the basis of lack of evidence.

Freedom of expression

The right to freedom of expression was severely restricted, particularly during the election period. The government repeatedly cut internet access and, after 21 October, intermittently blocked social media sites. Journalists and others faced police intimidation, threats and violence.

On 27 August, UIR officers detained an election observer from the Public Integrity Center, a national NGO, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, despite his carrying the appropriate credentials issued by the National Electoral Commission, after he photographed posters in a local school. The law prohibits schools from exhibiting posters. He was accused of being a member of “the terrorists” active in Cabo Delgado but was released hours later after his family intervened.

On 21 October, police fired tear gas at journalists who were interviewing Venâncio Mondlane on Joaquim Chissano Avenue in Maputo city, hitting Gaspar Chirindza of Soico TV in the leg with a tear gas canister.

On 25 October, Nuno Gemuce Alberto, a journalist with Gilé Community radio, was assaulted by police after he covered police violence against protesters in Gilé district, Zambezia province.

Violations of international humanitarian law

At least 20 civilians were killed in the Cabo Delgado province in attacks by armed groups and a local government militia known as the Naparama. Armed groups systematically looted supplies from warehouses belonging to NGOs and the World Food Programme. The NGO Médecins Sans Frontières said it had had to relocate staff and suspend local activities following the attacks. The violence resulted in the internal displacement of more than 700,000 people.

On 28 January a man was decapitated by armed groups in Metuge district as he was returning home from Pulo, an agricultural area. There was a surge of attacks by armed groups in the Chiúre district. On 15 February, armed groups killed a civilian and burned down two churches in the villages of Muerota and Kitivahola. The next day, they killed another civilian and burned down a church, 24 houses and a school in Nkiura village. Between 26 and 27 February, at least eight civilians were killed by armed groups who also set fire to a hospital and a school in Mmala village. On 10 May, armed groups raided Macomia district, destroying houses and public infrastructure. On 11 December, armed groups killed two civilians in Miangelewa village, Muidumbe district, and looted their supplies.

On 8 March the Naparama killed three civilians in Chiúre district they considered to be “terrorists”. They had been carrying out an educational electoral registration programme for local people.

Right to life and security of the person

Authorities failed to take adequate measures to ensure the safe release of at least 12 businesspeople of Asian descent or their family members who were kidnapped by criminals demanding ransoms. Nor did they take necessary measures to prevent such crimes.

The victims included Saif Arif and Ali Mamade, who were kidnapped in March and May respectively and later released, and Aboo Gafar, taken in July, whose whereabouts remained unknown. The three men were kidnapped in Maputo city.