HRF condemns the assassination of Mozambican opposition political activist Anselmo Abílio Vicente. He is the third local organizer of main opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane’s party to be murdered this year. HRF deplores the total impunity that has followed these murders and the pattern of systematic violence targeting Mondlane’s political base.
On May 9, unidentified gunmen aboard a pickup truck opened fire on Vicente, who was walking with a colleague after attending a meeting of the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (ANAMOLA) party in the city of Chimoio. Struck in the abdomen, he was rushed to the intensive care unit of the Provincial Hospital of Chimoio, where he died from his injuries an hour later. Mozambican police regional spokesperson Mouzinho Manasse announced investigations.
Vicente, a local ANAMOLA political coordinator, is the 56th member or supporter of Mondlane to be murdered since 2024, according to Mondlane, who has called on the public and supporters to join three days of mourning and peaceful forms of protest. Mondlane has repeatedly accused the ruling FRELIMO regime of orchestrating a brutal campaign of repression against his political base, with 436 documented cases of serious violent intimidation. He has filed complaints with Mozambique’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior — which have not responded — and submitted a formal communication to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Assassinations of political opponents and critics have been a persistent feature of the more than five decades of FRELIMO rule in Mozambique.
