Mozambique police fired on a peaceful opposition parade on March 5, 2025, injuring at least 16 people, including 2 children, Human Rights Watch said today. Hundreds of people sang, cheered, and danced in the parade, led by the former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, in the capital, Maputo, before being attacked.
The parade, involving a convoy of some six vehicles, had moved without incident for about three kilometers amid police units deployed across the city ahead of the signing ceremony for a political agreement that day. The agreement, between President Daniel Chapo and various political parties, but excluding Mondlane, aimed to start a two-year dialogue toward achieving reforms to end the country's post-electoral crisis.
"The Mozambican police's use of lethal force against participants in a peaceful parade shows disturbing disregard for life and the law," said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities need to promptly and thoroughly investigate this unprovoked attack on the political opposition and hold those responsible to account."
Since October 2024, Mozambique has experienced an unprecedented wave of demonstrations with people contesting the 2024 election results as well as the rising cost of living and other social problems. Security forces cracking down on the protests have been implicated in serious human rights abuses, including the unlawful killing of over 300 people.
On March 5, 2025, around 1 p.m. near the Hulene Expresso interchange, Mondlane's convoy approached an armored vehicle of the Police Rapid Intervention Unit stationed in the middle of the road, several witnesses said. Without warning, officers inside and near the police vehicle began to fire tear gas and live bullets at the crowd, forcing them to flee.
A 32-year-old woman shop owner told Human Rights Watch that "things changed from a lively party to war zone within seconds." A 26-year-old man who was in the front of the crowd said: "We were all singing and dancing when suddenly I heard gunshots. I turned to see what had happened and I saw this police officer from the top of the armored vehicle, holding an AK-47 [assault rifle] pointed at us. I ran for my life." A Human Rights Watch researcher who visited the scene hours after the incident said that there were used tear gas canisters and bullet shells at the site.
Bullets and tear gas canisters caused the most serious injuries, the local group Plataforma Decide said. Many others inhaled tear gas.
A police spokesman, Leonel Muchina, told Human Rights Watch that police used tear gas to disperse Mondlane's supporters because "they were causing disruption to traffic" and intended to disrupt the signing of the political agreement. Yet, the signing ceremony was not scheduled to begin until 3 p.m. at the Joaquim Chissano Conference Center, about six kilometers away from the incident. Muchina did not explain why he believed the convoy planned to reach the conference center. Mondlane's spokesman, Abdul Nariz, said that the convoy planned to end at the Combatants Square (Praça dos Combatentes), which is about four kilometers from the conference center.
The police spokesman said that he was unaware that live bullets were used to disperse the parade. "We know that several people were injured as they fled in panic," he said. "We will investigate if any were injured with live bullets."
On March 9, Mozambique's new minister of justice, religious and constitutional affairs, Mateus Saize, criticized the police's frequent use of live ammunition to disperse street protests. He urged security forces to "prioritize less-lethal methods, such as rubber bullets and tear gas," thus avoiding escalations of violence and loss of life.
The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa severely restrict the use of force, especially the use of lethal weapons and so-called less-lethal weapons, such as tear gas.
These standards provide that security forces should use the minimum necessary force at all times. Nonviolent means, such as demands to vacate an area, should be used before resorting to the use of force and firearms. The UN Human Rights Committee in a general comment stated that "[f]irearms are not an appropriate tool for the policing of assemblies. They must never be used simply to disperse an assembly".
The 2020 UN Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement provides that tear gas should only be employed when necessary to prevent further physical harm and should not be used to disperse nonviolent demonstrations. Tear gas should only be used after a warning is given and participants have been given time to obey the warning and provided with a safe space or route for them to move.
"Mozambican authorities need to do more than urge security forces to use less-lethal methods and instead should engage in and enforce security forces reforms," Budoo-Scholtz said. "They should also ensure that all those harmed by police brutality get prompt and adequate redress."
