Maputo (AFP) - Mozambique’s opposition on Friday promised fresh protests, as rights groups said at least 30 people had been killed in three weeks of demonstrations over contested election results.

The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since the ruling Frelimo party was announced winner of the October 9 elections with more than 70 percent of votes. The party has been in power for almost 50 years.

Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who won 20 percent of the vote according to the election authority, claims the election was rigged. In social media posts, he has called his supporters onto the streets in protest.

In the biggest demonstration yet, thousands of opposition supporters marched through Maputo on Thursday.

Security forces fired tear gas and deployed dogs to disperse the crowds, as some protesters threw rocks and set up barricades using burning tyres and bins.

The city’s largest hospital, Maputo Central Hospital, registered three deaths from Thursday’s violence, spokesperson Dino Lopes told reporters.

Lopes said Friday that out of 66 people treated for injuries, four were in a serious condition.

President Filipe Nyusi said he had visited the injured in hospital “to show our solidarity”.

He added: “We took advantage of the moment to ask that there not be a violent demonstration. There is plenty of room to talk.”

Burnt vehicles littered the streets on Friday and stone barricades were still in place in some areas, but markets and stores had reopened.

- Rising toll -

Human Rights Watch did not have a toll for Thursday’s protests but said it had counted at least 30 dead between October 19 and November 6 across the country.

This includes two opposition figures shot dead on October 19.

Mozambique’s Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) said at least 34 had been killed, according to its tally.

“What began as a call for electoral justice has transformed into a brutal display of state repression, with the number of confirmed deaths now at 34,” it said in a post on X.

A police officer has also been killed, Defence Minister Cristovao Chume told reporters Tuesday, warning that the army could intervene “to protect the interests of the state”.

It appeared the protesters intended to “change the democratically established power”, he said.

President Nyusi is expected to step down at the end of a two-term limit in January and hand over to the party’s victorious candidate, Daniel Chapo.

The Constitutional Council, which has to confirm the election results around two weeks before then, has asked for clarification about a possible discrepancy in voter numbers.

Election observers, including from the European Union, noted irregularities in the poll. The EU mission condemned what it called the “unjustified alteration of election results”.

- Protests ‘to continue’ -

Mondlane, a 50-year-old former radio presenter, is in hiding and in an interview with AFP Wednesday would only say he was not in Africa.

“I feel that there is a revolutionary atmosphere… that shows that we are on the verge of a unique historical and political transition in the country,” he said.

His Podemos party, which has demanded a recount, said Friday it would not let up the pressure.

Its calls for demonstrations are to demand “electoral truth”, Podemos president Albino Forquilha told reporters.

“We will continue on the streets until we have an answer. We are putting fair pressure and we do not want violence,” he said.

Forquilha said Podemos data showed “inconsistencies in the number of voters and the number of registered voters”.

Disturbances struck one of Mozambique’s busiest border posts with South Africa, Lebombo, where there were reports of vehicles being torched.

South African authorities shut the crossing on Tuesday but reopened it Friday to allow the movement of people, South Africa’s Border Management Authority said.

About 300 trucks were queueing to enter Mozambique, the Southern African Association of Freight Forwarders said.

Police in Eswatini, which also borders Mozambique, meanwhile reported that scores of Mozambicans had entered the country at one border post apparently to avoid the turmoil.

“Currently there are close to a hundred, who are kept at the Siteki police station, but the number has been growing from Wednesday,” said communications officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati.