Traffic on several central avenues in Maputo had already been blocked by demonstrators, stopping traffic from circulating, while police have been responding with tear gas, amid fresh protests against the electoral process called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, following the disputed general elections of 9 October.
With burning tyres on the site where the young woman was hit by an armoured military vehicle travelling at high speed, at around 9.30 a.m., in a scenario of extreme violence – it is not clear whether the driver spotted the protester on the other side of the barricade – the demonstrators, who until then had done little more than block traffic on Maputo’s central arteries, were enraged.
The young woman was taken to hospital in a serious condition by other people.
Subsequently, when any police vehicle, including armoured vehicles, passed by, demonstrators responded by throwing stones and sticks, at least on Avenida Eduardo Mondlane and Avenida Guerra Popular, in the city centre.
At around 11 a.m., the authorities fired real and live bullets and were surrounded by dozens of protestors.
Mondlane had called on people to leave their cars on the streets from 8 a.m. for three days, starting on Wednesday, plastered with election protest posters, until their return from work.
At least 67 people have died and another 210 have been shot in a month of demonstrations since 21 October to contest the results of the general elections in Mozambique, according to an update issued on Saturday by the local non-governmental organisation Plataforma Eleitoral Decide.
Mondlane had called the demonstrations as a way of contesting the award of victory to Daniel Chapo, the candidate supported by the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), with 70.67% of the vote, according to results announced on 24 October by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) that have yet to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council. The protests had degenerated into clashes with the police, who resorted to firing tear gas and shots to disperse them.
