US, Britain and others condemn escalating violence in Mozambique

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, Norway, and Switzerland on Wednesday jointly condemned the escalating violence against civilians in Mozambique, a southern African nation currently embroiled in weeks of post-election protests.

“We call on the Government of Mozambique to uphold the role of security forces to protect the people of Mozambique,” the countries said in a joint statement.

Public outrage has surged after last month’s disputed election results, which sparked protests from opposition supporters.

The opposition is contesting what they say is a fraudulent victory by Frelimo, the party that has governed Mozambique since 1975.

The election result saw Frelimo extend its five-decade rule with its candidate, Daniel Chapo, succeeding President Filipe Nyusi to become Mozambique’s fifth president since its independence from Portugal.

Footage obtained by Reuters and shared on social media on Wednesday showed an armoured vehicle ploughing through a crowd of protesters in the capital, Maputo, hitting a woman.

In response to the incident, Mozambique’s army released a statement expressing deep regret over the accident, saying that the vehicle that was part of a properly marked convoy “accidentally ran over a citizen”.

The embassies of the five countries have called for an investigation into the incident.

Local monitoring group Plataforma Decide said last week at least 67 people were killed due to the unrest between mid-October and mid-November.

(Writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Bate Felix and Sandra Maler)