Please don’t think that this is a daily situation and that we are in a war zone. Mozambique is a beautiful country with a proud and interesting history, full of diversity and people that came from all over the world. Mozambique has miles of breathtaking beaches and its people are welcoming and relaxed. The incidents portrayed here are the results of years of neglect from the government that continually puts the people’s needs after theirs. This is the people’s way of trying to get the governments attention to better the way of life. Prices on basic foods and fuel has gone up while the minimum salary has stayed the same. A 50kg bag of flour cost last month 700 Meticais and today it will cost you 1050 Meticais. The people want change but will the government follow up? Rumors say that the riots will go on for at least 3 more days unless the government does something positive.
First video is taken on the road to Matola, a city 12kms outside Maputo. At the end you see the cars that took refuge around the tollgate for protection against the rioters.
Second video is on the same road but at a different location and facing Maputo. After the end of the video I turned left towards the home of a co-worker to drop him off so he would have less to walk.
Third video is on the road to an area we know as Machava. I paused the camera when I stopped to drop of my co-worker. It was a stop that lasted only a second as I was trying to keep up with the convoy ahead of us.
Fourth video is still on the same route and we are trying very hard to catch up with the convoy.
Fifth video, still trying to catch up to the convoy while dodging debris and tires on fire.
Sixth video you can see the city. My co-pilot says in the video that all the smoke on the horizon is from the tires that were set on fire. I was skeptical on this point. At the end of the video we reach a gas station that was reported to have been on fire. We saw a little fire damage but not the burning inferno that was reported. But it was looted and vandalized. Theft in Mozambique is very opportunistic.
The last video was taken on the main road to the city, where I came from. The cars on the right are waiting for a police car to drive by so they can follow for safety reasons. The fear here was mostly of having your car vandalized, flipped and set on fire. People rarely come to harm. But you still shouldn’t risk it.