Mozambique police fire on protestors with opposition leader's location unknown
Mozambican police fired on supporters of opposition leader Venancio Mondlane marching in the capital Maputo on Wednesday, injuring at least 10 people, Mondlane's team and a human rights researcher said.
A police spokesperson confirmed that law enforcement had dispersed marchers but declined to elaborate.
Mondlane's supporters had gathered hours before President Daniel Chapo signed an agreement with some political parties aimed at ending months of protests over Chapo's disputed election victory last year.
Mondlane came second in the presidential vote but has been excluded from the talks leading up to the agreement, which is meant to include a review of the country's electoral laws.
Analysts say Mondlane's exclusion means the agreement will likely do little to stabilise the resource-rich Southern African country.
Mondlane's team said in a statement posted on Facebook that his whereabouts were not known after police broke up the march. It said 16 people had been injured.
Mondlane did not answer a phone call from Reuters.
In a separate video broadcast live from Mondlane's Facebook page, the opposition leader was seen standing in a car moving down a street surrounded by a crowd of people cheering and singing. The sound of gunshots rang out, after which people started running and the video abruptly cut off.
Zenaida Machado, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the organisation had confirmed at least 10 people had been injured by police on Wednesday. She added that firing on a peaceful opposition gathering jeopardized efforts to bring stability to Mozambique.
Political analyst Joao Feijo said the government's talks with other political parties were little more than theatre without Mondlane's involvement.
'The longer it takes to include Venancio, the worse the chances of stabilising the situation,' he said.
Local civil society monitoring group Plataforma Decide says more than 350 people have been killed in the post-election demonstrations that started in late October.
Mondlane told supporters on Wednesday that he would continue with his anti-government protests, for years if necessary.
He says Chapo and his Frelimo party won the October election through vote-rigging, while Western observers say it was not free and fair.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
14 minutes ago
- Reuters
Kenya police fire teargas to break up protests over blogger's death in custody
NAIROBI, June 12 (Reuters) - Kenyan police on Thursday fired teargas to disperse dozens of protesters in Nairobi who were demonstrating against the death of a blogger in police custody last week, Reuters TV footage showed.
Reuters
29 minutes ago
- Reuters
UN nuclear watchdog says Iran in breach of obligations, Iran announces counter-measures
VIENNA/DUBAI, June 12 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations on Thursday and Tehran announced counter-measures, as tensions rose in the Middle East before further U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks. U.S. and Iranian officials will hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran's accelerating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday, the Omani foreign minister said on Thursday. But security fears have risen since U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday American personnel were being moved out of the region because "it could be a dangerous place" and that Tehran would not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency's policy-making Board of Governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the U.N. Security Council. The step is the culmination of several stand-offs between the Vienna-based IAEA and Iran since Trump pulled the U.S. out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that accord unravelled. An IAEA official said Iran had responded by informing the nuclear watchdog that it plans to open a new uranium enrichment facility. The move by Iran was among several measures being taken because of the resolution, Iranian state TV said. The IAEA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iran had given no further details such as the location of the site. Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for Iran's atomic energy organisation, told state TV that Tehran had informed the IAEA of two countermeasures including "the upgrading of centrifuges in Fordow (enrichment plant) from first to sixth generation, which will significantly boost the production of enriched uranium". Enrichment can be used to produce uranium for reactor fuel or, at higher levels of refinement, for atomic bombs. Iran says its nuclear energy programme is only for peaceful purposes. Reiterating Iran's stance that it will not abandon the right to nuclear enrichment as a signatory to the global Non-Proliferation Treaty, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that rising tensions in the region were intended to "influence Tehran to change its position about its nuclear rights." The Iranian official said a "friendly" country had alerted Tehran to a potential strike on its nuclear sites by arch-adversary Israel and reiterated that the Islamic Republic would not abandon its commitment to nuclear enrichment. "We don't want tensions and prefer diplomacy to resolve the (nuclear) issue, but our armed forces are fully ready to respond to any military strike," the Iranian official said. Iranian state media reported that Iran's military had begun drills earlier than planned to focus on "enemy movements". The decision by Trump to remove some personnel from the region comes at a volatile and highly sensitive moment in the oil-producing Middle East, where security has already been destabilised by the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas that began in October 2023. Oil prices initially rose after Trump's announcement but later eased. Foreign energy companies were continuing their operations as usual, a senior Iraqi official overseeing operations in southern oilfields told Reuters on Thursday. Trump has threatened to strike Iran if the nuclear talks do not progress, and in an interview released on Wednesday said he had become less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium. The Islamic Republic wants a lifting of the U.S. sanctions imposed on the country since 2018.
Metro
31 minutes ago
- Metro
Jay Slater 'armed himself with two knives for protection' hours before vanishing
Jay Slater stuffed two knives into his pants for 'protection' on the night he vanished, according to bombshell claims in a new podcast. The 19-year-old's disappearance on Tenerife a year ago captivated millions on social media, with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X flooded with a mix of conspiracy theories about drug cartels and claims about Jay's past. Now celebrity investigator Mark Williams-Thomas is releasing a two-part podcast featuring new accounts of that fateful night from some of the last people to see and hear from the teenager. They include first-hand accounts from Ayub Qassim, the convicted drug dealer who Jay accompanied back to an AirBnB, and the teen's best friend Lucy Law. Speaking to Williams-Thomas for the podcast, titled Jay Slater: The Investigation , Qassim reveals his final conversation with Jay, saying: 'He (Jay) said to me pal I'm off, this woman told me I can get a bus every 10 minutes, I told him that he's mad, there's no bus that's coming here every 10 minutes, chill out for a bit and I'll drop you off later on. 'He said, 'No, no I've got to go to Los Cristianos, I need to scram, I need to chip out'. There's nothing more that I could do. I saw him walk off maybe down the steps. I maybe shut the door and said if you need me…' He also describes picking up Lucy and two of Jay's other pals to go and look for him. Listeners hear Qassim telling the former detective: 'They were just doing my head in, one said, 'That's the two bottles of Henny [Hennessy cognac], they were just doing my head in. 'In the end I just turned to Brandon and said, 'Look Brandon, one of your mates, yesterday walked way because he's f**** off with the ket [ketamine] and he want missing. Tell this f****** idiot to get back in the car'.' Williams-Thomas says the last comment 'is really significant new information'. He adds: 'So, Qassim says in the recording that Jay left the rental on the morning and took with him Qassim's ketamine. 'If you wonder why we've not heard this before, his police statement of course made no mention of this. My intelligence, however, is that the rental location was specifically chosen so as not to being attention to nay illegal activity.' Elsewhere, Lucy claims police in Tenerife 'weren't taking me seriously' when she first reported him missing. She also reveals how Jay told her he was 'going on a mission' the night before he vanished – and before sending a photo to a friend of himself carrying knives. 'On the night before, when I was still awake, before we went home, he messaged me saying 'I'm going on a mission', then I've gone home, tried to find him…,' she tells Williams-Thomas. 'Woke up to the call from Brandon in the morning, 'oh my God he's in the mountains, trying to walk…. He's said 'can't go back there, can't go back there' (to the Airbnb).' Of the clip Jay sent of himself arming up with the knives, she says: 'Took the kitchen knives from the Airbnb and put them down his pants, lifted his top up and shown it to him 'Just in case anything kicks off'. I'm like…' She adds: 'It could have just been a coincidence but with him also saying about going on a mission…' Qassim describes how the case turned him into 'public enemy number one'. He says: 'Lucy (Law) has my Snapchat, so has Brad (Hargreaves) we have each other on social media. I can chat to the mum, I don't need any of this. I've got journalists turning up at my house. 'I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, let a guy come to my house, because he said to me 'mate they've all left' and chatting to them, they said he wanted to carry on partying. More Trending 'I'm black, it's an unfortunate situation. I'm being nice in letting someone stay at mine and now I'm public enemy number one.' The inquest into Jay's death was halted last month when his tearful mum Debbie Duncan begged for some of those who saw him last – including Lucy and Qassim – to be called as witnesses. 'How can we ever get any understanding?' she said. 'There's things we want to question. We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn't come back.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Nursery worker accused of hurting babies 'got fed up if she couldn't vape' MORE: Homes evacuated and man arrested in Llanelli after 'bomb found near Post Office' MORE: Woman arrested on suspicion of murder after boy, 4, found dead inside Maidenhead home
