Good evening. Protests are now banned in Mozambique, the interior minister said yesterday, since the demonstrations have transformed into subversion and “urban terrorism”, in his words.

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Police today fired tear gas at a group of demonstrators in the Machava neighbourhood, Matola city, Maputo province, who were allegedly on their way to a local police station to demand clarification of a fatal shooting yesterday of a 14-year-old boy. The boy killed yesterday was the ninth child reportedly killed during the post-election demonstrations, UN childrens’ organisation Unicef said today.

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It remains to be seen how he and the police will respond if Mozambicans follow Venâncio Mondlane’s call today for a loud protest from 9-10pm this evening, with people vuvuzelas, whistles, car horns, and presumably the banging of pots and pans. 

Such behaviour has previously led the apparently bewildered and frustrated police to fire tear gas at people in apartments and on their balconies, banging pots and pans out of their windows.

Violence is certainly continuing. Yesterday, a 14-year-old boy was killed in Matola, apparently by police. A group of locals on their way to the police station to protest his killing today were met with tear gas. The case was the ninth killing of a child in this post-election crisis, according to UN children’s agency UNICEF. On Wednesday, a youngster was killed at the Brandao market in Quelimane, after police prevented mayor Manuel de Araujo from carrying out his usual peaceful march with his fellow citizens.

So who are the urban terrorists? The terror on the streets of Maputo and other cities in Mozambique is being sown by, in particular, plain clothes members of elite police units and the secret services armed with AK47s, not civilian demonstrators.