Maputo, 25 Nov (AIM) – Unknown individuals burned down, on Saturday, the headquarters of Podemos (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), in Testa África neighbourhood, in the central province of Manica.
Podemos is the party that supports the presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who called for the demonstrations that have been taking place since 21 October in order to protest against the allegedly fraudulent results of the elections held on 9 October.
According to Podemos member, David Daniel, before the building was burned down, someone called alerting him to the incident.
“I got a call from an unknown number. The person told me to get out of there, because there were people coming to burn down the headquarters. And in fact, when I went to look outside, there were already people surrounding the whole site. So we saw that the place was already on fire”, he said, cited by the independent paper “O País.”
Podemos delegate, Elton Forquilha, believes that the headquarters were burned down as a result of an act of political intolerance.
“What remains to be seen is whether these people were really policemen, or whether they were people who wanted to make themselves look like policemen. What they [the witnesses] say is that they were in uniform and there were up to seven half-litre bottles of fuel left. They were carrying sticks with clothes tied to them, the kind you use to set fires, and they used them for those homemade bombs.”, he said.
According to Mouzinho Manasse, the Manica provincial police spokesperson, investigations into the fire are now under way.
“There are investigations being carried out. At a later date, they will be able to tell us more precisely what happened, whether it was an arson attack”, he said.
(AIM)
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