Arlindo Chissale, a disappearance in the shadows of Mozambique's security services

“Mozambique Exposed” is an investigation being carried out by a consortium of 30 journalists from ten different media outlets based in France, Germany, the United States, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Rwanda and Mozambique and coordinated by Forbidden Stories. FRANCE 24 and RFI are partners in this project.

Arlindo Chissale, a Mozambican journalist who became an activist with opposition party Podemos, denounced suspected fraud and the murder of fellow activists in the aftermath of the October 2024 general elections. Frelimo, the party that has been in power since the country’s independence, carried the elections.

Chissale was also investigating some of the most sensitive issues for the Mozambican government: the Islamist insurrection in Cabo Delgado, its impact on international gas megaprojects in the province and human rights abuses carried out by both the insurgents and Mozambican soldiers. The first part of our investigation looked at the context behind his disappearance on January 7, 2025.

Read moreArlindo Chissale, the Mozambican activist and journalist who knew too much

Chissale disappeared without a trace while travelling on public transport between the Mozambican cities of Pemba and Nacala. His disappearance occurred just a few days after he published a series of videos denouncing the murder of another member of Podemos. Most of his friends and family who spoke to the FRANCE 24 Observers team suspect that his disappearance was linked to his political and journalistic activities and that the Mozambican security forces might have been involved. However, for the time being, no information proving this theory beyond a doubt has been made public.

In order to better understand, we have tried to reconstruct the days leading up to Chissale’s disappearance through conversations with his friends and family.

‘He was preparing us for the worst, ever since the assassination of Elvino Dias’

On January 2, 2025, Chissale left Nacala, a town located in the province of Nampula, where his primary residence is located and where he works for the city’s cemetery. From there, Chissale travelled to Pemba, a city in Cabo Delgado province – the epicentre of his political activities. He stayed for several days in a home he has there. In a video he shared in a number of private WhatsApp groups on January 4, he said that he had travelled to Pemba because of his political activities.

"I’m not just here for the weekend, but to organise these elections [Editor’s note: he is referring to elections for district administrators, which seemed to be of an unofficial nature], which are ongoing and would conclude on January 6. How will they unfold? I came with a mission from the engineer Venâncio [Mondlane] to find out and to make sure it all takes place in an orderly manner.”

His family says that Chissale was nervous during his stay in Pemba, that he felt threatened by the consequences of the 2024 post-electoral crisis and the wave of assassinations of Podemos leaders. We spoke to his brother, Macario:

"He prepared us for the worst because, as a journalist, he knew that he was working on sensitive subjects. He told us, his loved ones, that we should know that the situation wasn’t good. He knew that Elvino Dias’ phone was seized after his assassination and that he thought that they [the assassins] had access to information that could compromise him.”

The FRANCE 24 Observers team was able to access Chissale’s email account and confirm that he was, indeed, in contact with the lawyer Elvino Dias, a figure within the Podemos party who was assassinated in his car ten days after the presidential election in October 2024.

Screengrabs of WhatsApp conversations shared by friends and family show that he was also in contact with other important figures within Podemos, including Venâncio Mondlane, who ran for president in 2024.

‘I think his videos about electoral fraud are why he was kidnapped’

But what exactly about his political activities made Chissale, a journalist who was used to working on extremely sensitive subjects, afraid for his life? We were able to ask Venâncio Mondlane, the 2024 Podemos presidential candidate.

"Arlindo Chissale was a senior member of our group known as ‘intellectual guerillas’, made up of people who wrote, who carried out the political struggle through stories.

When we joined Podemos [Editor’s note: Mondlane tried to run for president with two other parties before joining Podemos, including the historic opposition party Renamo], he continued to do the same thing, with just one difference. He started to make detailed denunciations about the electoral fraud that occurred. And I think that these videos are why he was kidnapped.”

Mondlane had been living in exile abroad for several weeks when Chissale disappeared. Mondlane returned to Mozambique two days later on January 9, 2025. Chissale’s friends and family say that the fact that Mondlane was returning to Mozambique made the situation even more tense – and added to the pressure that Chissale was living under every day. On January 6, Chissale told his family in Pemba that he was heading back to Nacala because he had a work commitment with his job at the cemetery.

‘A police commander wanted to see him the night before his disappearance’

The first concerning sign took place around 9pm on January 6. He apparently received a call from a police commander who wanted to see him immediately. Chissale recounted this to a friend, who then shared the story with the Observers team.

"It wasn’t the first time they spoke; they were speaking informally to one another, using the informal form of ‘you'. The police officer said, ‘I have news for you, are you at your home in Pemba?’ Arlindo said, ‘It’s news you can only tell me face to face?’ The person on the other end of the line said yes. So Arlindo told him to meet him in front of the petrol station next to his home.

Arlindo’s partner told him that she didn’t want him to go. He insisted, so she said that, at the very least, he shouldn’t go alone. He should go with two neighbours.

They went out together. But when they got there, the commander just told him that Podemos candidate Venâncio Mondlane was going to return to Mozambique on January 9. The meeting didn’t last long at all.”

This information was already widely known at the time, so Chissale’s friend suspected that this meeting was a pretext, that the police officer just wanted to make sure that Chissale really was in Pemba – and perhaps even wanted to arrest him.

The Observers team tried to contact Pemba’s 3rd precinct, where the police officer is thought to have been based, according to the information we gathered. At the time of this article’s publication, we have still been unable to get in contact with him.

‘You shouldn’t sleep here’

The next day, on January 7, Chissale made several attempts to leave the city, but buses had been disrupted by protests in the region. A friend at his home that day said that, in the middle of the day, Chissale received another concerning phone call.

"One of his friends called him and told him that he had something to tell him urgently. They went outside to speak, but I ended up going outside, too, to see what was happening. They stopped talking when I got there, but I heard his friend say, ‘you shouldn’t sleep here.’ Arlindo wanted to leave himself, but the friend offered to drive him. They left around 2pm.”

We spoke to this friend, who confirmed that he had obtained information that Chissale was being hunted by a “death squad”. That’s why he urged Chissale to leave Pemba as soon as he could. The FRANCE 24 Observers team was not able to independently verify this information.

Articles at the time, however, show that the security forces were accusing “infiltrators, who came from other parts of the country” of being behind protests in Pemba following the 2024 general elections, won by Frelimo, the party in power in Mozambique since 1975. Chissale, whose primary residence was in Nacala, a city in Nampula, not Cabo Delgado, and who was very active in the protests, fits this description. The Observers team contacted the Mozambican ministry of the interior to ask about any surveillance being carried out on Chissale or any arrest warrants in his name, but they did not respond to our questions.

‘The last time I spoke to Arlindo, he was in a minibus in Silva Macua’

After Chissale left Pemba, a friend talked to him on the phone around 5pm. He then spoke to our team:

"Arlindo told me that everything was going well, but it was like he didn’t want to talk. The way he spoke was a little strange. He told me that he was in a minibus, but he seemed to hesitate about where he was. The person next to him said in Makua [Editor’s note: a local language], 'We are in Silva Macua.' And then our call ended."

Chissale didn’t respond to any calls after that. Thinking that his phone must have run out of battery, his friend left it for the night. Then, the next day, he started calling other friends and family members in Nacala and Pemba. No one had heard from Chissale. Ten days later, on January 16, the friend decided to report Chissale’s disappearance to the police.

But his attempts went nowhere, even though he was summoned by the prosecutor in March 2025.  A number of reports by local NGOs, including one by an organisation called the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, as well as a letter from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Mozambican government, say that witnesses saw Chissale’s bus stormed by a group of men, some of whom were in uniform. They dragged Chissale violently out of the bus and then put him into a white van. We were not able to independently verify this information. Our team asked the Mozambican Army as well as the Ministry of the Interior about their role in Chissale’s disappearance, but they did not respond.

What happened to Chissale after his last phone call in Silva Macua remains unknown.

A man who had long been on the police’s radar

Chissale had been on the Mozambican security forces’ radar long before he began his political work with Podemos. He was arrested in October 2022, when he was filming public buildings in Balama, a city in Cabo Delgado. Augusto Messariamba, a lawyer with Misa, an organisation devoted to freedom of the press, represented him at the time.

"The police thought that they had some evidence that Chissale was part of a group of terrorists [Editor’s note: Islamist insurgents are known to operate around Balama], essentially the security forces said that he didn’t have accreditation as a journalist.

As a precautionary measure because of this fear, they detained him at the Balama police station, but the detention surpassed the legally recommended time limit.

We made an application to the courts, and Chissale was provisionally released. When the case went to court, we were able to show that he was a journalist, from A to Z, and that he had nothing to do with terrorism. He was acquitted because of a lack of proof.”

Just a year later, Chissale tried to run in municipal elections in Balama as a candidate for the opposition party Renamo, but the authorities and local militants prevented him from doing so. On July 8 of that year, police stormed his home in Balama. He told his friends about the traumatic experience – one of them shared the story with us.

"We don’t know what these police officers wanted. Maybe they wanted to kill him. There were 21 of them. A fight broke out, in his garden. Then, they [Editor’s note: Chissale and a friend] were put into a police car and brought to the precinct. The commander told them that they would be arrested and incarcerated, without explaining why. They remained there for several hours, until the commander told them to go home.”

Chissale filed a complaint against the 21 police officers who he said had been involved in the raid. Our team was able to consult a copy of this document. He said that he was injured during the raid. We do not know the result of this case.

‘We thought that he might be shot or tortured, but not disappeared’

With no results from the investigation into Chissale’s disappearance, some of his friends and family now believe him dead. His brother, Macario, says he is still unable to grieve.

"We didn’t think that he would be disappeared. Maybe that he would be shot or even tortured to death and thrown into a dumpster. In that case, at least people could have helped to find him, and we could have given him a decent burial. We haven’t even been able to do that."

The FRANCE 24 Observers team contacted the Mozambican police and judicial authorities to ask about the findings of the ongoing investigation. They did not respond to our questions.

This article has been translated from the original in French by Brenna Daldorph.

Mariana Abreu (Forbidden Stories), Gaëlle Laleix (RFI) and the team at the Mozambican media outlet Zitamar News all contributed to this article.