A prison riot in the Mozambican capital Maputo left 33 dead, 15 injured and nearly 1,500 inmates escaping, the country’s police chief Bernardino Rafael said today, amid major political unrest in the country.

Some 1,534 people escaped from prison during the uprising, but 150 of them have now been recaptured, Rafael said.

Mozambique is experiencing major political upheaval and yesterday authorities announced that at least 21 people had been killed in a day of anti-government protests in the country after the Constitutional Council ratified the victory of the Frelimo party – which has been in power since the African country’s independence. from Portugal in 1975 – in the October 9 election. The Constitutional Council’s verdict sparked a new wave of protests by opposition supporters who allege electoral fraud. In this climate, the authorities have taken drastic security measures throughout the country

The police chief blamed the prison riot on protesters who had gathered outside the prison.

However, Justice Minister Helena Kinda told local private television network Miramar TV that the riot started inside the prison and had nothing to do with the protests outside it.

“The clashes that followed resulted in 33 deaths and 15 injuries inside the prison premises,” Raphael stressed in a press conference.

Two months after anti-government riots broke out in the country, at least 130 people have been killed, most of them protesters, according to Mozambican NGO Plataforma Decide.