Video: Gilé returning to normal, says governor

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Video: Gilé returning to normal, says governor

3:04 CAT | 21 Oct 2017

Jornal Txopela (File photo) / Zambezia governor Abdul Razak

The governor of the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, Abdul Razak, on Friday assured the public that life is returning to normal in the town of Gile, after serious rioting the previous day.

Whipped into a frenzy by rumours that government officials are cooperating with vampires, a mob on Thursday attacked the Gile district administration, the local police command and the homes of community leaders. They broke into the district prison and released the 76 people incarcerated there.

The police opened fire on the mob, and stray bullets killed two children playing nearby.

“I called the press here to express the solidarity of the government with the families of the two people killed by the police when they were trying to contain the fury of the rioters who were attacking the district police command”, Razak said, at a press conference in the provincial capital, Quelimane.

He urged the public to pay no attention to rumours about vampires. Such rumours, said Razak, are spread deliberately by “people of bad faith” in order to cause disorder.

“We have to exercise greater vigilance and denounce the circulation of strangers inside the community to avoid situations similar to what happened on Thursday morning”, he added.

The rumour lacks even the slightest basis in reality. Not a single person has come forward to claim that they were bitten by vampires. Yet the rumour has spread, not only in Gile, but across much of Zambezia and in neighbouring Malawi, where five alleged vampires were murdered by mobs.

Also Read: “Rumours originated from Mozambique” – Malawi’s Mutharika vows probe as vampire scare forces UN out

Also Read: 140 arrested in Malawi as police clamp down on ‘vampirism’ killings

Also Read: Mozambique police fire live bullets, kill two people in Gilé crackdown – A Verdade

Also Read: Two dead in Gilé as police vow zero tolerance of rioting – AIM report

Razak announced that reinforcement have been sent to police units in Gile to ensure the normal functioning of state institutions, and that the Zambezia provincial police commander, Francisco Miquidade, has gone to Gile to take personal control of operations.

The Gile district administrator, Joaquim Pahare, who had taken refuge in the neighbouring district of Alto Molocue, has now returned to Gile town.

When reporters from Mozambique Television (TVM) visited the town on Friday they found it calm, but most public offices were still closed.

Also Read: Mozambican police hold 20 people for ‘bloodsucker’ vandalism – Zambezia

Also Read: Man narrowly escapes lynch mob after he is mistaken for a ‘bloodsucker’ in Milange, Mozambique