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MAPUTO : Mobile phone messages calling for new riots over food and fuel price hikes swirled around Mozambique's capital Maputo Saturday as it recovered from three days of violence that left 10 people dead.
Calm returned to the city on Saturday with vendors back out on the streets, but a Red Cross spokeswoman said there could be more unrest in store.
"We do suspect the situation could change on Monday. More text messages were sent around calling on people to strike," said Americo Ubisse.
Maputo police also confirmed reports of new riots being planned for Monday, but could not establish the source of text messages.
"People say that the violence will return on Monday. We don't know if this is true," said police spokesman Arnaldo Chefo.
Mobile text messages were used to organise the demonstrations that left over 400 people injured earlier this week.
Ubisse said the Red Cross has its emergency teams standing by and ready to react to any new outbreaks of violence.
No new cases of unrest had been reported since Friday night, when three police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators, Chefo said.
"Three police were injured when protesters threw stones at them. When we tried to stop them some people threw stones and other objects at police," said Chefo.
Ten people were killed and more than 440 injured in three days of rioting that started Wednesday sparked by spiralling food prices. Police fired rubber bullets and live ammunition to control demonstrators.
On Saturday, in markets around the city people went about their usual business, with shops re-opened and buzzing with customers.
"The strike made life difficult. There were no taxis to enter the city. People could not come to work," said Silveira Mabicka, who was visiting home from South Africa.
The impact of the riots was still evident everywhere in the city, with charred debris scattered across the streets and blockades being removed by the police.
The unrest interrupted fuel supplies in Maputo and long lines formed outside fuel stations, as people scrambled to fill up their cars.
Price hikes for several essential foodstuffs including bread were implemented on September 1 and the government said this week the increases were "irreversible".
"It is not just bread. So many things have got too expensive here in Mozambique. Electricity went up, water and rice," said Joao Francisco Chirindze, a carpenter.
Chirindze said the cost of living was too high for many people. He said his household expenses amounted to between 5,000 and 7,000 meticals (US$140 and US$190 dollars) a month, more than twice his salary.
He said he supplemented his wages by doing odd jobs on the side, helped by the money brought in by his wife from selling potatoes.
"The metical is down right now, it doesn't have the same value it used to. The dollar and the South African rand have gone up a lot. Everything is difficult to buy," he said.
According to the United Nations, more than half of Mozambique's 22 million people survive on less than one dollar a day.
"The customers are complaining, they do not want to accept the price of six meticals for bread. They say it is very expensive," said Alcido Manjate, a bread vendor from Benfica, a poor neighbourhood outside Maputo.
The violence was the worst in Mozambique since 2008, when six people were killed in protests against a public transport fare increase.
The southern African country which lies on the Indian Ocean coast relies on neighbouring South Africa for many goods, while a large number of Mozambicans work in South African mines. - AFP/fa
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