By Ricardo Dias
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – On Wednesday, demonstrators released at last 100 prisoners from the Morrumbala district prison, in the central province of Zambézia, according to the police.
“The demonstrators vandalised the prison and set it on fire. The prisoners escaped”, Orlando Mudumane, the spokesperson for the General Command of the Mozambican police (PRM) told MOZTIMES.
The police say “we are working” to recapture the escapees and put them back behind bars but gave no further details.
Wednesday was the first of eight more days of demonstrations, ordered by fugitive presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, speaking from his hideout, believed to be somewhere in Europe. The Wednesday demonstrations resulted in at least five deaths, and key access roads in Maputo and other major cities were blocked.
Since the start of the demonstrations on 21 October, at least 89 people have died and over 200 have been injured. The police have arrested over 3,000 participants in the demonstrations, mainly for public order offences.
Mondlane calls the latest unrest “the fourth stage of the fourth phase” of the demonstrations, and it is quite openly aimed at bringing the country to a standstill.
Mondlane says his main goal is “to restore the truth about the elections” held on 9 October. The preliminary results, announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE), on 24 October claim that the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, won with over 70 per cent of the vote.
Mondlane denounces these results as massively fraudulent, and claims that, in reality, he won he presidential election and the main party supporting hm, Podemos, won the parliamentary election. (RD)
