Unrest blocks Mozambique’s South African border for a second day

Renewed demonstrations after last month’s elections have led to road closures in Mozambique’s capital, as well as repeated disruptions at the Ressano Garcia border crossing

Mozambique’s main border crossing with South Africa was blocked for a second day on Thursday due to political unrest, the highway concessionaire said.

Renewed demonstrations after last month’s elections have led to road closures in Mozambique’s capital, as well as repeated disruptions at the Ressano Garcia border crossing, which South Africa’s mines use to move chrome en route to the Maputo port.

Violence has rocked Mozambique in the wake of the October 9 vote that extended the governing party’s 49-year rule over the nascent natural-gas exporter, which ranks among the world’s poorest nations. Opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane disputed the outcome as fraudulent, and has repeatedly called for protests, including three days of demonstrations that started Wednesday.

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The unrest threatens to further delay a $20 billion natural-gas project that TotalEnergies SE is leading, while straining already tight state finances. Mondlane — who fled the country on October 21 — skipped a meeting that President Filipe Nyusi called for November 26, saying the incumbent failed to respond to his demands.

By Wednesday, at least 70 people had died since the October 21 start of demonstrations, local observer group Decide Platform said. Police have used teargas and live ammunition to disperse protesters, and Nyusi said five officers were killed.

A group of western embassies including the US and UK late Wednesday condemned the escalating violence, with particular mention of an armored vehicle that “accelerated toward a gathering of people and brutally struck” one of them.

Amateur footage showed an armored vehicle speeding directly into a group of people in one of Maputo’s main streets crowded around a banner of Mondlane on Wednesday. A few people dived out the way, but the vehicle ran over one person. The defense ministry said it was accidental and urged people to obey the rules of the road.

The European Union earlier this week expressed concern over “a worrying spread of violence, looting, vandalism, and desperation.” It said the “brutality of the repression from the state apparatus and the police has exacerbated the situation.”

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