Daniel Chapo of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party was sworn in as president on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by few people after months of protests against his controversial election victory.
A local civil society monitoring group says more than 300 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since the October 9 election, which the opposition says Frelimo won through vote-rigging.
Western observers say it was not free and fair, but Frelimo denies accusations of election fraud.
Social and political stability will be his government’s top priorities, Chapo told a group of about 1,500 supporters from a podium in the capital, Maputo.
With this victory, Chapo, a former radio broadcaster and law lecturer, will replace Filipe Nyusi as president of the southeast African country.
The Frelimo party has been in power since Mozambique’s independence in 1975. Shortly after independence, a 16-year civil war between Frelimo and the former guerrilla movement Renamo – now the country’s main opposition – left about a million people dead before the 1992 war ended the worst of the conflict and bloodshed. Blood. However, violence periodically erupts as elections approach.
In an attempt to achieve a “final peace”, the two parties signed the Maputo Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement shortly before elections in 2019 to end years of conflict.
More than 5,000 former combatants have given up their weapons and have since been reintegrated into society.
Mozambique was among the countries in southern Africa that were struck by drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon, which led to the destruction of crops, affecting about 1.8 million people.
The United Nations in Mozambique said last August that residents were affected by drought in the central and southern parts of the country.