Amid a new wave of post-election protests in Mozambique, outgoing President Felipe Nyusi has ruled out any foreign mediation and emphasised dialogue, reports the online Portuguese paper Observador.
At a Monday reception for leaders of the political parties represented in parliament, as well as the extra-parliamentary New Democracy (ND) party, Nyusi framed his decision as a belief in Mozambique’s ability to solve its own problems because “when the issue is dealt with by ourselves, it is an issue that allows us to find a solution without schemes, without arrangements, without interests.”
The outgoing president also met one-on-one with party leaders, including Albino Forquilha of Podemos, which backed the candidate now leading the protest movement, Venâncio Mondlane; and Daniel Chapo, the president-elect and current secretary-general of Frelimo, which has dominated Mozambican politics for nearly half a century.
“The solutions for Mozambique can only be found by us Mozambicans,” Nyusi insisted, advocating for dialogue as a solution. His previous attempt, a meeting between all of the presidential candidates, largely failed. Mondlane, who is in hiding and under indictment, has refused to return to the country or disclose his location for a meeting abroad.
[See more: Violence surges in Mozambique as ruling party refuses to budge on election result]
Protests erupted on 21 October, after government forces fired multiple rounds of tear gas at Mondlane, his supporters and journalists. The group had assembled for a press conference following the murder of two close Mondlane associates who were challenging the results of the presidential election held on 9 October.
Official results were not released until 24 October, when the National Electoral Commission named Chapo the winner with 71 percent of the vote, his Frelimo party securing 195 of 250 parliamentary seats. The results were widely disputed by internal observers and external election monitors.
When the results were ratified on 23 December, violence erupted across Mozambique, nearly doubling the number of deaths in a matter of days. Plataforma Eleitoral Decide, an NGO that monitors elections in the country, said at least 175 people have been killed in the last week alone.
The threat of violence has pushed thousands of Mozambicans to flee to neighbouring Malawi and Eswatini, and caused South Africa to close an economically vital border crossing with Mozambique. These developments helped fuel the call by the Southern African Development Community on Tuesday for an immediate cessation of hostilities to pave the way for dialogue to resolve the unrest.
