Chibuto, Mozambique, Feb. 24, 2025 (Lusa) - Dozens of demonstrators on Monday blocked the main road linking the district of Chibuto to the city of Xai-Xai, the provincial capital of Gaza, in southern Mozambique, in protest at the cost of living in the country.
"The exit to Xai-Xai has been blocked since the morning, as has the Chissano road (...). The police are here, but I don't think they're managing to [resolve] anything. There hasn't been any shooting, there hasn't been anything, in fact it's just these blockades. They say they're obstructing the roads because of the cost of living," a source told Lusa from the district of Chibuto.
National Road 102 in Chibuto, the main road linking the district to the provincial capital of Xai-Xai, has been blocked since 9am (minus two hours in Lisbon) by a cargo truck, tyres, stones and logs, local sources reported, noting that at least one person was injured during the protests.
"They were here near the hospital now because someone was injured in the mouth with a stone and had two stitches," Luísa Bina, a duty officer at Chibuto Rural Hospital, told Lusa, who was only not caught up in the “confusion” because she left home early.
"I don't know how it's going to be [on the way back] because I live a bit far away," she lamented, noting, however, that motorists have been using alternative routes to get in and out of Chibuto.
The road is still blocked, but "there was no vandalism like the other times. [Today] they're just blowing whistles and other things," another source told Lusa.
The Mozambique police (PRM) confirmed to Lusa that they are on the ground working, with further information to come later.
"The situation is not calm yet," said a police source in Gaza.
The local administrator said he was not aware of the matter, adding that he would speak in due course.
In the same province, last week, protesters blocked roads and set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in the district of Chókwè, different sources told Lusa.
"On Tuesday morning, a group of people went to the party headquarters where they threw stones, broke glass and burnt some papers they found inside. They tried to set fire to the headquarters but didn't manage it," said José Mabuta, Frelimo's secretary for Mobilisation of Social Organisations, Communication and Image in Gaza at the time.
Mozambique has been experiencing a climate of intense social unrest since October, with demonstrations and stoppages first called by former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who rejects the election results of 9 October.
The protests, now on a smaller scale, have been taking place in different parts of the country and, as well as contesting the results, people are complaining about the rising cost of living and other social problems.
Mozambican president, Daniel Chapo, said on Thursday that the country's demonstrations were part of an "agenda of subversion" aimed at "destabilising" the country.
Since October, at least 327 people have died, including dozens of minors, and around 750 have been shot during the protests, according to the electoral platform Decide, a non-governmental organisation that monitors electoral processes.
LN/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
