Mozambique: Journalist’s Disappearance Must Be Investigated

Arlindo Chissale is a husband and father of five children. He is a journalist and editor for Pinnacle News, an online news outlet that also covers the ongoing conflict in Cabo Delgado. He is also an active supporter of opposition candidate Venâncio Mondlane, a former independent presidential candidate in the general elections held on 9 October 2024.

Arlindo Chissale has also written about the elections and the widespread allegations of irregularities, which sparked protests across the country, resulting in, according to Civil Society Organizations monitoring the crisis, more than 300 deaths, many of which have been attributed to security forces. His enforced disappearance comes at a time when the opposition party, Podemos, has denounced that over 100 of its members have either forcibly disappeared, been abducted, detained, or killed since the start of the protests in October 2024.

Arlindo Chissale is not the first journalist to go missing in Cabo Delgado. In April 2020, another journalist, Ibrahimo Mbaruco, forcibly disappeared in Palma district, allegedly abducted by military personnel. To this day, his fate and whereabouts remain unknown, and the public prosecutor archived the case without any resolution.

This is not the first time Arlindo Chissale has been targeted by the authorities. On 29 August 2022, he was detained and held incommunicado by the police for 3 days, according to his family he was later granted provisional release and issued a TIR-Term of Identity and Residency.