Good afternoon. On the one hand, President Daniel Chapo is presiding over a process of political and constitutional reform, known as “inclusive national dialogue”, in collaboration with opposition political parties. On the other hand, his government has done remarkably little to stop supporters of one opposition party, Anamola, from being killed (see below).
The killings of Anamola activists resemble the killings of opposition figures Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe just after the October 2024 elections, along with other killings of police officers and opponents of the ruling Frelimo party over the years. They are clean, professional jobs, and the culprits get away neatly. The exception to this is the killing of election observer Anastácio Matavel in 2019, whose killers crashed their car as they were trying to escape the murder scene. But even in that case, the people who directed the killing were never identified.
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There is therefore little reason to doubt that all these killings are carried out by the security forces on the orders of people in Frelimo or the government. It does not look like the sort of thing Chapo would order: unlike his predecessors, he does not have a background in the armed forces or as a fighter in the Mozambican war of independence, and so does not tend to view political opponents as enemies to be eliminated. But in any case, as president of both Mozambique and of Frelimo, he is responsible for the people who are most likely involved.
