The peaceful protests evolved into violent demonstrations and turned out to be "urban terrorism", said the Commander General of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique.

Since October 21, Mozambique has been experiencing a period of demonstrations against "electoral fraud" in the general elections held on October 9.

At a press conference yesterday, Bernardino Rafael said that 46 cases of violent demonstrations had been recorded in the last seven days. These have affected private and state property, such as businesses and police stations.

For the Commander-in-Chief, these are in fact violent demonstrations with a subversive tendency and a clear intention to change the country's democratically established institutional order.  

According to Rafael, "these same demonstrations are no longer violent demonstrations, but subversive demonstrations with a clear tendency towards urban terrorism".

He said that acts of vandalism, looting of public property and intentions to block ports and borders amounted to urban terrorism.

The commander says that there is a clear violation of the Constitution of the Republic, an affront to what guides social coexistence and "a change in the serious order".

"The way those demonstrators were parading on the 7th [of November] is the same as what the terrorists are doing up north. The same thing," he said, questioning the need to do this "in our country".

For the PRM, it is urgent to say "enough is enough" to demonstrations with a clear tendency towards urban terrorism.

On Monday, the presidential candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, called for a three-day general strike from today until Friday. He said that all activities in the country's urban centers and borders should be paralyzed.