Mozambican police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse two separate strikes by education professionals protesting over pay and conditions on Thursday.

In the capital, Maputo, administrative staff protesting the non-payment of a bonus for long service at the country’s biggest university, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and police dogs, according to reports by state broadcaster Rádio Moçambique and state news agency AIM.

At least four separate arms of the police force were called to break up the strike, including the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) and the Canine Force, in what a spokesman for the strikers called “a threat” and “lack of humanity from the directors of UEM”. UEM said the strike was illegal.

Also on Thursday, the UIR fired tear gas and rubber bullets at students at a teaching college in Vanduzi, near the city of Chimoio in the province of Manica, who were protesting at the lack of food, running water, and sanitation at the college.

The students of the Chibata teacher training institute had blocked the EN6 highway between Chimoio and the Zimbabwean border, and locked the gates to their college.

The students said they are having to resort to burning dried plants to cook cabbage leaves that they themselves are cooking in the garden, since the management of the college stopped providing food.

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