Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Khanyo Farisè, acknowledged that "the situation in Mozambique is getting worse by the day, as the death toll skyrockets, but the Southern African Development Community remains shockingly silent."

Amnesty International urged SADC to take a firm stance against the attack on the right to protest and the killing of demonstrators regardless of the outcome of the elections.

"SADC has been painfully slow to respond to the Mozambique crisis. The bloc must now speak out strongly against continued human rights violations by Mozambican security forces and put human rights and accountability at the heart of its next summit in Harare, Zimbabwe.

"The African Union must also do much more to hold the authorities in Mozambique accountable, including by asking the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to conduct investigations into ongoing human rights violations in Mozambique."

SADC will meet in an extraordinary meeting from Tuesday, November 16 to 20 in the Zimbabwean capital to discuss the Mozambique elections and other issues.

The police have killed dozens of people so far, injured more than a hundred and arbitrarily arrested or detained thousands, according to data from Mozambican civil society organizations.

Last week, the authorities mobilized the military to stop the protests.

SADC has been painfully slow to respond to the crisis in Mozambique. The bloc must now speak out firmly against ongoing human rights violations.

The demonstrators carried out reprisals against alleged police officers, including at least one murder, according to the authorities.

Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane has called for multiple phases of protests against alleged electoral fraud and police violations against demonstrators.