SUMMARY
Mozambique has since its independence in 1975 been ruled by the Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front) party, first as a one-party communist state and later as the dominant party in a multi-party authoritarian democracy. As its popularity has waned in the 2020s, the Frelimo government has increasingly relied on violence to maintain control.
Mozambican government forces has engaged in widespread one-sided violence in the conflict zone in Cabo Delgado, where it faces an insurgency by Islamist militants that in 2019 swore allegiance to IS (Islamic State). One-sided violence by the Mozambican government increased in particular during its panicked response to the escalating conflict in 2020. Government forces mainly targeted suspected sympathizers of the militants and refugees fleeing areas under attack from IS, reportedly fearing that IS was using the refugees to infiltrate into new areas. The targeting of civilians with lethal violence decreased during 2021, possibly as a result of the decreasing refugee flows out of the conflict zone. However, government forces continued to target suspected sympathizers of IS and refugees fleeing areas under attack from the insurgents during the year.
In 2024, government use of one-sided violence escalated dramatically as it cracked down on a protest movements seeking to end Frelimo's nearly 50 years rule. The results of the October 2024 elections, which according to official results gave victory to Frelimo's candidate, Daniel Chapo, with 65 percent of the vote, were disputed and declared fraudulent by second place candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who declared himself the winner. Mass protests erupted after security forces on the night of October 19 murdered two prominent Mondlane supporters, including his lawyer who was in the process of legally challenging the election results. Throughout the rest of the year, protests supporting Mondlane would be met with deadly violence by the police, killing nearly 300 people. The protests started largely peacefully, but turned more violent towards the end of the year, especially in the north of the country, as they continued to be met with violence from the government (some of the deaths are thus recorded in the Violent Political Protest category of violence not shown here). Protest violence in Mozambique decreased substantially in 2025, after a March agreement between Chapo and Mondlane which would provide reparations for the victims of government violence. Protests in December also resulted in the deaths and arrests of members of the Naparama movement in the north of the country, sparking violent retaliations that reignited the conflict over government in 2025. Previous elections have at times also been contested and resulted in violence, notably the 2023 parliamentary elections which resulted in violent clashes between government forces and Renamo supporters.
