Venancio Mondlane, Mozambique’s main opposition leader has returned home from self-imposed exile on Thursday morning. According to reports Mondlane was clutching a bible and saying he still rejects the results of a disputed election last year that has sparked more than two months of protests and a v!olent crackdown by security forces.
According to the video post by Zimbabwe’s prominent Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on his X account, Mozambique’s security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of his supporters who gathered near the main international airport to welcome him home.
Mondlane arrived at Mavalane International Airport in the capital, Maputo, to applause from some airport workers and then kneeled in the arrivals hall with a bible in his left hand.
Speaking to the media upon arrival, the opposition leader says: “I want to fight within this country and I will, until the very end, keep fighting for this country.”
“I’m not willing to accept election results if they are the same as those announced up until now,” Mondlane added
The opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane left the country in October following an election clouded by allegations of rigging against the long-ruling Frelimo party, which has been in power since Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
Mondlane has said he left Mozambique fearing for his life after two senior members of his opposition party were k!lled in their car by unknown gunmen in a late-night sh00ting on a street in Maputo in the aftermath of the election. Mondlane’s party called the k!llings political assassinations.
