The Government of Mozambique denies that the Police attacked journalists during the protests

MADRID 22 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Government of Mozambique denied this Tuesday that security forces had directly attacked journalists who were reporting on the protests called on Monday by the opposition presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, in the capital, Maputo.

“It is not true (…) There were shots fired at the protesters and the journalists positioned themselves in a place where there were also protesters, so they were hit by tear gas,” said government spokesman Filimao Suazi.

Suazi has reported that if there are clues of “some excess” in the actions of the security forces on Monday, an investigation will be opened, although he has made it clear that it is constitutional for the Police to guarantee public order, according to what he has said. picked up by the O Pais news portal.

The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) explained this Tuesday that a group of journalists had gathered around the opposition candidate, who was giving statements to the press, when the Police fired tear gas.

“RSF condemns this attack as an attempt to silence journalism in a heated post-election climate,” he said in a brief message published on the social network X in which he also attached a video of several journalists running to take shelter from the gas.

At least one journalist was injured during the protests, the Lusa news agency reported. The mobilization had been announced this Saturday by Mondlane, candidate of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Vamos) in protest of the deaths of two of his political partners this weekend.

Mondlane explained that the protests were motivated by the preliminary results of the October 9 elections that give the government party, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), as the winner, as well as by the death of his lawyer, Elvino Dias, and of Paulo Guambe, who were shot dead in an ambush in the center of Maputo.

The opposition presidential candidate has called this Tuesday for two days of “peaceful” strike starting this Thursday to protest the alleged fraud that had been committed in the elections, of which the ruling party emerged winner.