Mondlane’s team and a civil society group said at least twelve people were injured after Mozambique police violently dispersed protests led by opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane.
Witnesses and Mondland aides said police drove live tours to opposition leaders’ convoys and anti-government protesters who joined him on the streets of Maputo’s capital on Wednesday.
Neither the police nor the authorities commented.
The protests are due to President Daniel Chapo, who took office in January, will take office in January after meeting with other political parties to end months of protests on the controversial election.
Mondland, who had been calling for protests, was excluded from the talks that led to the ceremony.
An communique from the Mondland office said opposition leaders had been leading the parade when his convoy was under fire on Wednesday afternoon.
“The accidentality of uir [a rapid intervention police unit] It hit the convoy of Venâncio Mondlane and started a gunshot with live ammunition and tear gas. ”
In response to the incident, Interior Minister Paulo Chachine told reporters that the police’s mission is to prevent any attempt to disrupt the transaction signature ceremony.
He denied attempts to kill Mondland.
According to the decision of the local civil society group Plataforma, 16 people were injured. The BBC could not confirm the number of casualties.
Mondlane’s team said two children at a nearby school died in a shooting. It said 16 people were injured, including their photographers, while others were affected by tear gas.
It said in a statement that Mondland’s condition was “unknown and his whereabouts attracted the attention of the entire team.”
A video shared on social media shows gunfires starting to sound as the parade approaches armored vehicles on the streets. People run for safety, the crowd disappears, and gunshots continue.
More images of the person who bleeded during the incident have also been shared online.
A witness among the protesters told AFP that police had begun shooting, as if it was an “ambush situation. It was just a parade”.
“I saw someone bleeding from the wound. My friend was injured in the leg. I also saw a child being shot and killed in the hospital,” AFP quoted Silvestre Alexandre, 27, as saying.
Mozambique’s former colonial force Portugal condemned “unacceptable attacks on the convoy of Venâncio Mondlane” while calling for “restriction of violence and respect for fundamental rights”.
In an article on X, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed condolences to the families of the deceased.
Since President Chapo took over in January, he has committed to a wide range of political dialogue, including various sectors of society, to end the country’s post-election crisis.
However, some analysts criticized him for excluding Mondland from the negotiations.
On Wednesday, Mondlane condemned the political agreement, calling it a “a deal for people without people.” He said the protests will continue.
“If they don’t do what they want, they won’t rule Mozambique,” he said.
According to civil society organizations, nearly 400 people have died in violence related to protests since October.
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