More than 1,500 prisoners have escaped from a prison in Mozambique, taking advantage of ongoing political unrest triggered by disputed election results, police say.
Mozambique has been rocked by unrest since disputed elections in October.
Fresh protests erupted on Monday, when the constitutional court ruled that Chapo had won the election, while revising his margin of victory downwards.
Since Monday, at least 21 people have been killed in the unrest, the interior minister said late on Tuesday.
About 150 people have been killed in three months of protests since the elections.
According to police, more than 1,500 inmates have broken out of a Mozambican prison, capitalizing on the ongoing political unrest brought on by contested election results.
Police Chief Bernardino Rafael told a press conference that clashes with guards resulted in 33 fatalities and 15 injuries.
He added that since then, about 150 more fugitives had been apprehended.
The ruling Frelimo party, which has ruled Mozambique since 1975, was confirmed by the country’s highest court to have won the October presidential election, sparking protests on Monday.
Groups of anti-government demonstrators, according to Mr. Rafael, moved toward the prison in Maputo on Wednesday. He claimed that inmates broke down a wall and fled by using the disturbance.
Since contested elections in October, Mozambique has been racked by instability. Daniel Chapo, the candidate for president of the ruling Frelimo, was declared the winner by official results.
When the constitutional court declared that Chapo had won the election, they revised his margin of victory downward, which sparked new protests on Monday.
According to preliminary October results, Daniel Chapo received 71 percent of the vote, compared to 20 percent for his primary opponent Venâncio Mondlane. According to the court’s latest ruling, he won 65 percent to 24 percent for Mondlane.
On Christmas Eve, a BBC reporter discovered that Maputo was essentially a ghost town, with nearly all businesses closed and residents staying indoors to avoid becoming entangled in the city’s worst unrest since Frelimo took office in 1975.
Frelimo’s offices, police stations, banks, and factories have been looted, vandalized, and burned down all over the nation. The interior minister stated late on Tuesday that at least 21 people had been killed in the unrest since Monday.
Mondlane, who has since left Mozambique, had been urging his followers to protest what he claimed was a manipulated election.
He warned of a “new popular uprising” in a social media post over the weekend if the outcome was not reversed.
In the three months since the elections, protests have resulted in the deaths of about 150 people.
