A woman looks out from the door of her room at the Grande Hotel in Beira on October 12, 2024. The Grande Hotel in Mozambique's second city of Beira, around 4,000 people living in squalor cling desperately to the hope that October 2024's election will bring change to their hard lives.
The hotel, with sweeping views of the Indian Ocean, is a portrait of the desperation of Mozambique where around 75 percent of the 33 million people live in poverty, the country still scarred by a 16-year civil war.
The hotel was built in the 1950s when Mozambique was still a colony of Portugal. It was abandoned by its owners in 1974, the year the Portuguese left following 10 years of war led by Frelimo. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP)