Mozambique journalists face killings and silence as repression deepens
Albino Sibia's final words were broadcast live on Facebook as he lay dying after being shot while covering a protest in southern Mozambique.
"They shot me and they're still shooting... I'm dying."
On 12 December 2024, the 30-year-old blogger was filming police firing tear gas during a demonstration in Ressano Garcia, a Mozambican town on the border with South Africa, when he was shot twice in the back.
Demonstrations contesting the results of the October 2024 general election, which triggered months of unrest, were in full swing at the time.
"Mozambican journalists paid a heavy price for covering the post-election crisis," said Muthoko Mumo, Africa programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mozambique's branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) filed a legal complaint over violence against journalists during the unrest that followed the election.
"Proceedings were opened. Misa was heard in February 2025 but since then, nothing has happened," journalist Slaide Muthemba, the press freedom organisation's spokesperson in Maputo, told RFI.
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Climate of fear
The post-election unrest lasted nearly four months and marked the peak of a long-running crackdown on press freedom and liberty of expression.
Mozambique is one of the few African countries never to have experienced a change of government since independence. Frelimo, the Mozambique Liberation Front, has ruled the country since 1975.
"What happened during the post-election crisis was something we had never seen before," Luis Nachote, coordinator of the Mozambique Centre for Investigative Journalism, told RFI.
"Over the past 10 years, we have faced severe restrictions. There have been many cases of people being arrested and disappearing."
Four journalists have been killed or have disappeared since 2020.
Among them was Joao Chamusse, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Ponto por Ponto, who was found dead at his home in Catembe, on the outskirts of Maputo, on 14 December 2023. His phones and computer were gone.
Community radio journalist Ibraimo Mbaruco disappeared after being taken away by men in uniform in 2020. Online journalist Arlindo Chissale, from Pemba in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, disappeared in similar circumstances in 2025.
Rich in gas, rubies and lithium, Cabo Delgado is central to Mozambique's economic future. But the province has also been the scene of an insurgency by a terrorist group known locally as Al-Shebab and linked to the Islamic State (although with no connection to the Somali militant group of the same name).
The conflict has killed more than 6,500 people and displaced nearly 1 million.
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Growing repression
"The post-election crisis frightened the regime and it responded very harshly," said Borges Nhamirre, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank. "Today, its control over the media is even stronger."
Demonstrations, the creation of Anamola – the party of opposition figure Venancio Mondlane, the defeated presidential candidate and driving force behind the protest movement – and the war in Cabo Delgado have all become taboo subjects, he told RFI.
"If you want information on these subjects, you have to search online. You won't find anything in the traditional media."
Online platforms have instead become an important space where many young Mozambicans exchange information.
"Communication through the internet and social media ended up raising awareness among young people. That's what triggered the mass outrage during the post-election crisis," explained journalist and sociologist Helder Leonel.
Leonel has hosted the weekly radio programme Hip Hop Time for 20 years. It has become a hub for rap and alternative culture in Mozambique.
"Through WhatsApp groups and memes shared on social media, a narrative emerges that runs counter to the one pushed by those in power," he said.
The Mozambican government or senior Frelimo figures have stakes in the country's three telecoms operators, Mcel, Vodacom and Movitel. Many young people have responded by finding ways around those controls, most commonly by using a VPN, or virtual private network, to hide their online activity.
Journalists disappear as intimidation grips Mozambique's Cabo Delgado region
Voice that won't fade
Alternative voices gathered on 6 May at the former home of rapper Azagaia in Matola to honour the musician, who died of an epileptic seizure three years earlier.
Azagaia became a symbol of dissent after authorities censored his 2008 song Povo no poder ("People in Power"), which has since become an anthem for many young Mozambicans.
"It's still almost impossible to hear it on the radio," Leonel said. Different versions of the song have nevertheless been viewed more than 1.5 million times on YouTube.
Marches held across several Mozambican cities after Azagaia's funeral in March 2023 were violently dispersed by security forces. At least 19 people were injured in Maputo, including two who were seriously hurt.
Activists, artists, journalists and academics came together at the house, which has since been turned into a library.
Outside, dozens of books were laid out on a table, including Traveller's Baggage by Portuguese writer and 1998 Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago, biographies of former Mozambican president Samora Machel and US activist Malcolm X, and a comparative study of the first presidents of Angola and Senegal, Agostinho Neto and Léopold Sédar Senghor.
Above the entrance was written: "O verbo que nao se cala" – "the word that never falls silent".
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Gaëlle Laleix, reporting from Cabo Delgado.
It is the fourth instalment of Mozambique Exposed, an investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a global non-profit network of investigative journalists. The project is based on nearly 100 interviews and five months of reporting by 30 journalists from 10 media organisations, including RFI and Les Observateurs de France 24 (France), Evident Media (United States), Expresso (Portugal), M28 Investigates (Rwanda), Paper Trail Media (Germany), SourceMaterial (United Kingdom), ZDF (Germany) and Zitamar News (Mozambique).