displaced people settled in locations without and midwives in some public maternity adequate water and sanitation in wards. Pregnant women dreaded the overcrowded dwellings without privacy or prospect of delivering their babies in public proper ventilation, putting their health at risk. hospitals and clinics due to obstetric The settlements offered few health and violence. The abuse often took place at night education services, and large numbers of in the absence of staff supervisors. children did not attend school. Significant numbers of women who had VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS delivered babies in maternity wards said they were expected to pay bribes to midwives and Violence against women and girls remained nurses to be treated with respect and dignity. rampant, with few measures taken to hold When they failed to do so, they were left perpetrators accountable. Although such unattended as their waters broke and at the violence was prevalent prior to the Covid-19 point of their baby’s birth, forcing them to outbreak, it was, according to local women negotiate the payment of bribes at the height human rights defenders and organizations, of their fear and physical pain. Despite further aggravated during the restrictive repeated calls by women’s rights groups, the measures taken to control the virus.2 Mozambican authorities made no apparent In June, revelations emerged that, for years, attempts to address the problem by bringing the wardens of the Ndlavela Women’s Prison perpetrators to justice or compensating the in Maputo province had created an elaborate survivors. scheme for sexual abuse and exploitation of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, prisoners. ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY In March, in Beira, Sofala province, a man brutally killed his wife with an iron bar, The authorities restricted activity within civic alleging that she had been drinking beer with space. On various occasions the police a male neighbour. In April, in Balama, Cabo prevented activists from exercising their civic Delgado province, a man beat his wife to rights, including their right to peaceful death because he suspected she had had an assembly. affair. In Nampula province, in July, a man In May, the police dispersed students who tied up his wife, poured petrol on her and set were peacefully protesting against a new law fire to her because he suspected her of giving parliamentary workers benefits which infidelity; and in September, a school janitor the protesters considered to be excessive. In sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl on her June, they prevented activists from the way to school, after threatening her with Centre for Democracy and Development from physical violence. In all these cases the submitting a list of their concerns to the perpetrators remained in police custody. In Administrative Tribunal. The activists were August, a human resources manager at a protesting at the construction of urban toll primary school in Murrupula district, gates on the Maputo circular road. In Nampula province, was found sexually September, police officers beat and arbitrarily assaulting a 14-year-old schoolgirl with arrested six journalists in Nampula province autism. The police dismissed the case, for covering a peaceful protest against forcing the girl’s family to take the case to the government delays in paying Covid-19 district Public Prosecutor, who assigned the subsidies. In October, the police prevented case to the investigative police unit. medical doctors from peacefully protesting in SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS solidarity with another doctor who was among a group of people who had been abducted. Local women’s organizations heard The mayor of Maputo claimed that he had testimonies from dozens of women who not authorized the event, even though the described being subjected to physical constitution requires organizers only to aggression, insults and humiliation by nurses inform, not ask permission from, the Amnesty International Report 2021/22 262