Thousands of Mozambicans have clashed with police in another wave of protests over the rising cost of living in the booming but impoverished Southern African nation, state-owned radio reported.
Maputo was rocked by street demonstrations last week that saw angry crowds loot shops, destroy vehicles and burn electricity poles. Three people were shot to death by police and more than 150 were injured.
Violence erupted again late on Monday night in Chokwe in the southern province of Gaza when protesters, some wielding machetes, seized a popular market, sealed off roads and looted shops, Radio Mozambique said on Tuesday.
Six people were seriously injured when police moved in to disperse the crowd, which the broadcaster said was linked to anger over rising transportation and other costs.
”We called them [the protesters] for a dialogue, but nobody accepted our offer, making it difficult for us to understand the real motives of the violent demonstration,” Jorge Macuacua, the mayor of Chokwe, told Radio Mozambique.
Mozambicans have taken to the streets this month to vent their anger over a 50% rise in mass transport fares.
Bus companies and other transport operators announced the steep increases in response to rising fuel costs. The local price of petrol has climbed 46% and diesel by nearly 90%.
But the fare increases have since been scrapped, and the government is expected to announce soon whether it will subsidise fuel for the mass transportation sector.
Although Mozambique’s economy is expected to grow robustly again in 2008 — GDP growth is forecast at 7% versus 7,5% in 2007 — the bulk of its 20-million people continue to eke out a subsistence living and many are mired in poverty.
Economic growth in the former Portuguese colony has also triggered inflation that has pinched Mozambicans. The inflation rate for 2007 was 8,4%, higher than the government’s forecast of 6,4%, and is expected to remain in single digits this year. – Reuters