Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police told Lusa on Friday that they were still investigating the double murder of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, supporters of former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who were murdered a year ago, without providing any further information for security reasons.
“Work is being done to clarify the case,” João Adriano, spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) in Maputo, told Lusa.
At issue is the murder, with dozens of shots, of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, supporters of the politician Mondlane, on the night of 18 to 19 October 2024, in the heart of Maputo city centre just after the general elections, a crime that remains unexplained and which two days later marked the beginning of popular protest against the electoral process, which lasted for more than five months in Mozambique.
The SERNIC’s spokesman said that “the investigation is not at the same stage”, but due to the nature of the crime and its investigation, he said it was not safe to give any information about it: “It’s an extremely sensitive and complex process, but work is being done to clarify what happened”.
On Wednesday, former Mozambican presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane blamed the “death squads” for the double murder of his supporters a year ago, assuming that under the “current regime” there will be no justice for an unexplained crime that shocked the country.
“I can’t say never. What I can say is that, with the current regime and judicial system, it will be very difficult for us to achieve justice. That’s why we have to apply pressure, that’s why I’m already starting to launch the idea of a national protest about these unexplained crimes,” said Mondlane in an interview with Lusa.
“We need popular pressure, we need all of us, society, journalists, academics and the international community to put pressure on the government and pressure on the judiciary so that we don’t continue to have this system of things,” said Venâncio Mondlane, who was a presidential candidate in the 9 October 2024 elections.
Elvino Dias, known in Mozambique as the “people’s lawyer” for the social causes and support he provided, especially to the most disadvantaged, died on the night of 18 October 2024 in an ambush, according to the police, who almost a year later had still not come up with any explanations or suspects for the crime, which has since been linked to political motivations.
At the time, he was Venâncio Mondlane’s legal advisor, and the car he was driving in the centre of Maputo was intercepted by two vehicles, from which armed men emerged and fired dozens of shots, mortally wounding not only Elvino Dias, 45, but also Paulo Guambe, a representative of Podemos. This party supported that candidate in last year’s elections.
The murder led to protests in Maputo two days later, which were repressed by the police, followed by the contestation of the election results, which Venâncio Mondlane never recognised.
“For me, there is absolutely no doubt that this is a job commissioned by the death squads,” said Venâncio Mondlane, pointing out that the crime had the “same modus operandi” as “so many others who have fallen in the fight for truth”.
On 23 December 2024, two and a half months after the vote, the Constitutional Council proclaimed Daniel Chapo the winner of the presidential election, with 65.17% of the votes in the general elections on 9 October, followed by Venâncio Mondlane, with 24%, but who never acknowledged the results.
The electoral platform Decide, a civil society organisation that monitors electoral processes, reported in April that at least 388 people had been killed and more than 800 shot in around five months of post-election protests, 90% of which “were caused by shots fired with real bullets”.
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