Call for Peace, end of disorder.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday invited the four presidential candidates, including Venâncio Mondlane, to a meeting and said that the violent post-election demonstrations were creating “chaos” and that “spreading fear on the streets” was weakening the country.

“I promise that, until the last day of my mandate, I will use all my energy to pacify Mozambique. I will. But for me to succeed in this mission, we need all of us and each one of you (…) Mozambicans have to be together to solve the problems,” said Nyusi, in a message to the nation, lasting around 45 minutes, on the “situation of the country in the post-election period”.

Calling for “freedom from selfishness” in this post-election process, the head of state, whose last term ends in January, said that the government is “open” to “together” finding “a solution” to the current situation, marked by stoppages and demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognise the results of the general elections of 9 October, announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), which still have to be validated by the Constitutional Council.

“We even need the different candidates for President of the Republic. We need the involvement of Lutero Simango, Daniel Chapo, Venâncio Mondlane and Ossufo Momade. We need the involvement of their collaborators and supporters. I want to take this opportunity to invite all of them, those four I spoke about, the candidates, to accept my call to meet with them, to jointly assess this situation and find a solution that benefits Mozambicans,” he said.

Nyusi insisted on the call for “calm” until “the results are validated” by the Constitutional Council but warned that these are the “sum of the various wills” and not one will “alone”.

“The country needs all of us. Our people need us. All problems can be solved through mutual understanding and the search for consensus,” he said.

He also said that “a peacemaking role” is needed in the country. Not one of “disorder”, stating that the current scenario of demonstrations, barricades in the streets, looting of shops, forced stoppages and other acts of violence in this process of protest, which has degenerated into constant clashes with the police since 21 October, represents an “attempted attack on the Mozambican state”.

“Against its sovereignty and territorial integrity. You can be sure that during all this time, we have never stopped working to reverse this situation (…) Calm and tranquillity will be restored throughout the country because we are working towards it,” said the President of the Republic.