Gunmen kill two Mozambique opposition figures ahead of election protests

19/10/2024 18:53

        Gunmen killed a Mozambique opposition lawyer and a party official after firing multiple rounds at a car in which they were travelling on Saturday, ratcheting up tensions ahead of protests against a disputed election result, rights groups said.
        
        Mozambique's new opposition Podemos party and its presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane have rejected provisional results showing a likely win for Frelimo, the party that has ruled Mozambique for half a century.
        
        They have called for a nationwide strike on Monday.
        
        Mozambican civil society election observer group More Integrity said the attack happened in the Bairro Da Coop neighbourhood of the capital Maputo, killing Podemos lawyer Elvino Dias and party representative Paulo Guambe.
        
        "They were brutally assassinated (in a) cold-blooded murder," Adriano Nuvunga, director of Mozambique's Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD), told Reuters by telephone.
        
        Human Rights Watch also issued a statement confirming the attack.