1,500 escape Mozambique prison as post-election unrests persist

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.

Thirty-three people were killed and 15 injured in clashes with guards, Police Chief Bernardino Rafael told a press conference.

The BBC reports that about 150 more fugitives have since been recaptured.

Protests erupted on Monday in response to Mozambique’s highest court confirming that the ruling Frelimo party, in power since 1975, had won October’s presidential elections.

Rafael said groups of anti-government protesters had approached the prison in the capital Maputo on Wednesday and prisoners used the unrest to knock down a wall and escape.

Mozambique had been rocked by unrest since disputed elections in October.

Official results showed the ruling Frelimo’s candidate for president, Daniel Chapo, winning.

Fresh protests erupted on Monday, when the constitutional court ruled that Chapo had won the election, while revising his margin of victory downwards.

Initial results in October said Daniel Chapo gained a 71 percent share of the vote to his main rival Venâncio Mondlane’s 20 percent.

The court has now ruled that he won 65 percent to Mondlane’s’s 24 percent.

About 150 people have been killed in three months of protests since the elections.

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