Calls for calm in Mozambique, and SADC intervention amid post-elections violence

There are renewed calls for calm in Mozambique and for the regional body, Southern African Development Community (SADC) to urgently intervene in the country. This as post-election violence continues to spread, after the proclamation final electoral results by the Constitutional Council of Mozambique, which confirmed Frelimo’s Daniel Francisco Chapo as the winner of the disputed October presidential election.South Africa said it has noted with concern the ongoing violence and the subsequent disruptive protest in reaction to the announcement. “South Africa calls on all parties to commit to an urgent dialogue that will heal the country and set it on a new political and developmental trajectory.Furthermore, South Africa is ready to assist Mozambique in any manner to facilitate this dialogue.The South African Government will continue working with SADC and other multilateral agencies in supporting a lasting solution to the current impasse. South Africa calls on all parties to exercise restraint and calm,” read a statement from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.Moreover, Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who’s also the Chairman of SADC, said the regional bloc is ready to assist in Mozambique.He appealed to all parties to respect the council’s decision to upheld Chapo’s victory. “The ruling by that country’s top electoral court, which upheld FRELIMO Party’s victory, completes and thus exhausts all lawful processes on determining election results, in line with that country’s national laws, and in keeping with SADC’s election guidelines and expectations.SADC thus expects all parties to the electoral process, both individually and collectively, to abide by the decision of the Council which should provide a constitutional way forward for the country, and facilitate the way to greater peace, normalcy and stability in the interest of all Mozambicans,” read a statement from Mnangagwa.The call come as over 1 500 convicted prisoners escaped from a Maputo maximum prison. Human rights organisations said more than 250 have been killed in the country since the post-election violence started in October. Protestors have blocked some of the main streets with burning tyres, businesses have been looted in the capital Maputo, and some countries have urged their citizens to leave the country. The violence has also affected operations at the Lebombo border post, between South Africa and Mozambique, which has seen long queues of trucks developing on the South African, as they’re unable to cross the border.