Gunmen kill two Mozambique opposition officials before election protests
Al Jazeera
Podemos party’s lawyer Elvino Dias and party representative Paulo Guambe killed before protests against disputed vote.
Gunmen in Mozambique have killed a leading opposition politician’s lawyer and another opposition official, according to their party, before protests against a disputed election result.
The attackers chased the car of Podemos party’s lawyer Elvino Dias and party representative Paulo Guambe and fatally shot them late on Friday night in the capital Maputo, the party said on Saturday.
Videos on social media showed a BMW SUV in the middle of the road with numerous bullet holes in the bodywork. Some of the videos showed what appeared to be the bodies of two men, one with blood on his chest, in the front seats. The other body was slumped over.
The killings came with tensions already high in the southern African country as it waits for the results of an October 9 election that has drawn more allegations of vote-rigging and clamping down on dissent against the 49-year rule of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party.
Podemos has rejected provisional results showing a win for Frelimo and called for a nationwide strike on Monday. Although Venancio Mondlane ran for president as an independent, he was supported by Podemos.
