Mozambique's opposition has promised to continue protests over contested election results that extended the ruling Frelimo party's near five-decade rule. At least 30 people have died since protests broke out last month, an international rights group has said.
Mozambique has been rocked by violence for the last three weeks since the ruling Frelimo party was announced winner of the 9 October elections with more than 70 percent of votes.
Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who won 20 percent of the vote, claims the election was rigged, allowing Frelimo to extend its almost half-century in power.
On Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at least 30 people have been killed in Mozambique during the crackdowns by security forces, including two opposition figures shot dead on 19 October.
Mozambique's Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) tallied at least 34.
"What began as a call for electoral justice has transformed into a brutal display of state repression, with the number of confirmed deaths now at 34," it said in a post on X.
HRW's death toll did not include violence recorded on Thursday, 7 November – the worst since the protests began – when police and soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of demonstrators in the capital Maputo.
Some protestors had set fires and barricaded roads.
The streets of the capital were littered with burnt vehicles on Friday and stone barricades were still in place in some areas, but markets and stores had reopened.
At a press conference on Thursday, military spokesperson General Omar Saranga said the army would support police in quelling the unrest.
The presidential palace is under heavy guard and security forces are patrolling the streets.
"In moments like this, with demonstrations taking place in some regions, our role also extends to supporting security forces in maintaining public order and peace," Saranga said.
Protests to continue
President Nyusi is expected to step down at the end of his two-term limit in January and hand over to Frelimo's victorious candidate, Daniel Chapo, continuing the leftist party's dominance of Mozambican politics since independence from Portugal in 1975.
The Constitutional Council, which has to confirm the election results around two weeks before then, has asked for clarification about a possible discrepency in voter numbers.
The European Union's election observation mission in Mozambique noted "irregularities" and "unjustified alteration" in the poll.
Mozambique opposition calls strike amid election fraud claims and assassinations
Opposition leader Mondlane is in hiding. His Podemos party, which has demanded a recount, said Friday that it would keep up the pressure through demonstrations in pursuit of "electoral truth".
"We will continue on the streets until we have an answer. We are putting fair pressure and we do not want violence," Podemos president Albino Forquilha told reporters.
South Africa, which had shut the border post with Mozambique on Tuesday, reopened it on Friday to allow the movement of people, the country's Border Management Authority said.
(with newswires)
