Johannesburg – Dozens of journalists and opposition members have been abducted or killed in Mozambique since the disputed 2024 elections, sometimes with the involvement of security forces, an international media consortium said Tuesday.
The probe, carried out by over 30 journalists led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories, documents what it describes as a campaign of intimidation targeting critics of ruling socialist Frelimo party, which has governed the southern African nation since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Frelimo leader Daniel Chapo was declared winner of the October 2024 presidential elections, in a vote which several international observer missions said was tainted by irregularities.
The election was followed by more than two months of demonstrations and blockades, during which more than 400 people died, according to a local civil society group.
Among the emblematic cases was that of Arlindo Chissale, a 46-year-old journalist from the gas-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado, the report said.
While travelling by bus to the city of Nacala in January last year, he was intercepted by men — some wearing police uniforms — and abducted after being beaten, according to witnesses cited by the United Nations.
“Chissale’s fate remains unknown,” the report said.
“He communicated very clearly, and with remarkable eloquence, about the mechanics of electoral fraud, explaining how it was organised, teaching people how to identify it and how to fight it,” opposition figure Venancio Mondlane, who came second in the presidential vote, told Forbidden Stories.
That, he believes, is why “he was ultimately abducted.”
More than 400 Mondlane supporters were allegedly victims of violence and 55 were killed, according to complaints filed by the opposition leader with Mozambique’s public prosecutor and reviewed by Forbidden Stories.
The investigation implicates security units including the Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) and the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR), as well as local informant networks.
Neighbourhood chiefs, often affiliated with the ruling party, were used to identify opposition supporters and pass information to the authorities, the report said.
Mozambican authorities did not reply to the journalist collective’s request for comment.
Mondlane’s lawyer, Elvino Dias, and a senior official from Podemos — the party backing his candidacy — were assassinated in an ambush by armed men in central Maputo in October 2024, shortly before the election results were announced.
“To the families of the disappeared, the lack of closure lingers like an open wound,” the report said.
Chapo took office in January 2025 and signed a post-election deal with nine other parties and announced a national dialogue.
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Source: AFP
