Behind the revolt of Maputo, cost of living and injustices
E 'seven dead, including two children, and nearly a hundred injured in clashes in the various budget areas of the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, between police and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against rising prices of food staples.
The riots coincided with the entry into force of price rises in a series essential services, from water to electricity. But the rising price of bread, which should lay it on thick Monday by almost 40%, would have been the spark that ignited the protest protests are not organized by any union or association but only by a simple word circulated through SMS on mobile phones.
" Behind the revolt of Maputo's high prices, poverty in the suburbs, a social divide that is increasing " says the agency Misna . The riots coincided with the entry into force of price rises in a range of essential services, from water to electricity. Monday, then, the price of bread would increase by almost 40%. The latter increase would have been the spark that ignited the protest today, a protest was not organized by any union or association but only by a simple word circulated through SMS on mobile phones.
"inflation The race started already last year, shortly after the confirmation election of the 'Liberation Front of Mozambique' to the end of government subsidies . In the period that preceded the October 2009 legislative vote, explain the Misna, the government has depressed prices for gasoline and many consumer goods. In the long run, however, this policy was not sustainable from a financial point of view. This year, the end of March to the end of August, gasoline prices have risen by almost 50%. Inflation, before the vote and 2% to 16% today, led to the devaluation of the Metical and thus increasing the cost of imported goods denominated in dollars or South African rand. Of these dynamics, decisive for the gasoline price increases but also the flour bought on international markets, told the Misna some missionaries.
" stone-throwing and looting of shops with the police - says Konrad Klich father, a missionary of the Divine Word in Maputo - ignite the suburbs, where no work and the poor feel abandoned .
Fueling the tensions, the sources of stress Misna are also social inequalities. " Mozambique is rich in coal, timber and other natural resources but exports only enrich a small elite . The sources of Misna exclude significant involvement of opposition parties, the Movement for multiparty democracy and the Mozambique National Resistance, weak and divided. Difficult to predict how it will end, despite an important precedent: In February 2008, before the October elections, demonstrations and riots led the government to cancel a 50% increase of freight rates.
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