Mozambique’s security forces carried out a brutal, three-month crackdown on protesters after the country’s election last year, a leading international rights group said Wednesday, citing local activists who alleged that more than 300 people were killed and more than 3,000 were injured in the unrest.
In its new report, Amnesty International called on Mozambican authorities to investigate the killings and all rights violations in the wake of the election, and to bring law enforcement officials responsible to justice.
Thousands of Mozambicans took part in waves of protests in the weeks after the Oct. 9 presidential and parliamentary election, where Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo party was declared the winner amid allegations of rigging and election fraud raised by his challengers and international observers.
The protests were in support of Venancio Mondlane, who ran as an independent candidate but was supported by the opposition Podemos party.
The demonstrations intensified after the Oct. 18 killing of Mondlane’s lawyer and a Podemos official, who were fatally shot by gunmen late at night while sitting in a car in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.
Mondlane denounced the slayings as a political assassination and called for 25 days of protests one day for each of the 25 bullets that were fired at the car.
Mondlane, citing fears for his own safety, left the country for two months but returned in January.
