Child killed, three persons seriously injured in bus attack in central Mozambique

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Child killed, three persons seriously injured in bus attack in central Mozambique

12:54 CAT | 10 Aug 2020

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

One child died and three others passengers were seriously injured on Friday in an attack on a bus in the Mutamira area, close to National Highway Nº 1, Mozambique’s main north-south highway, local sources told Lusa on Saturday.

An Etrago carrier bus was reportedly shot at several times at around 6:00 a.m. on Friday, just minutes after leaving Muxúnguè, in the Chibabava district, where it had stayed overnight because of insecurity affecting the region since August last year.

“We only heard shots, which hit the child who died. Three adults were also wounded and were later evacuated to the rural hospital in Muxúnguè,” passenger Joaquim Timóteo said.

The bus, from Maputo to Nampula, continued on its journey after the injured passengers were attended to at the hospital.

The attack took place in an area with no history of vehicle ambushes, but not far from Mutindiri, an area close to Mozambique’s main road, which frequently records armed incursions.

Several local residents told Lusa that they were frightened by the ambush, and some families had left their homes in search of safety.

“After the shots, I saw the bus stopped on the road and I was scared,” resident Jemusse Macande told Lusa.

“These attacks are very worrying. We are living in fear,” Filipe Muchanga, another resident, told Lusa, adding that he had already seen at least three attacks on that section.

Lusa tried unsuccessfully to contact the Chibabava district administrator for comment.

Mozambique’s central zone was historically the scene of armed clashes between government forces and the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), until December 2016, when peace was sealed in an agreement on August 6, 2019.

An uncertain number of guerrillas remain in the zone, forming a self-proclaimed Military Junta splinter group which challenges Renamo’s leadership, demanding the renegotiation of its disarmament and reintegration into society.

The Military Junta is accused by the authorities of carrying out the armed attacks, which have already killed 24 people in central Mozambique since August last year.

Source: Lusa