Dismay in Nampula at police conduct

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Dismay in Nampula at police conduct

12:42 CAT | 21 Feb 2020

Crime in Nampula is on the rise. [Photo: DW]

Mozambicans in the province of Nampula are increasingly complaining about police officers drunk on duty and threatening the population.

Alfredo José told DW Africa that the behaviour of police officers in the Mozambican province of Nampula is increasingly worrying. There are reports, he says, of agents in a state of drunkenness threatening defenceless citizens. “We are concerned about police officers who frequent bars while in uniform and use their authority to intimidate the population,” he says.

Residents the problem is particularly noticeable in Nampula.

Another common complaint concerns alleged collaboration between law enforcement officers and criminal gangs. Authorities acknowledge the problem, and have promised to take action against agents expressing “deviant conduct”.

Police officers as accomplices to criminals

The allegations come at a time when several neighbourhoods in Nampula are registering rising crime rates. Citizens accuse some police officers of allying themselves with criminal networks, and ask that police authorities put the corporation in order and ensure public order in Mozambique’s most populous province.

According to Alfredo José, “the police act in collaboration with criminals, because there is no other justification for people being robbed [so often] under their noses”.

Mosambik Nampula Moises Gueve (DW/S. Lutxeque) — Nampula PRM commander, Moisés Gueve, acknowledges the problems

Command promise to take action

Another citizen, José João da Costa, told DW Africa that he thought these problems arose from poor recruitment practices. “That is why we, the communities, suggest that we return to the old process, in which those who wanted to join the police went through a process whereby their communities were consulted,” he said.

The provincial commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique in Nampula, Moisés Guéve, acknowledges the existence of some of the problems, and said that measures would be taken against what he called the “deviant conduct” of certain police officers.

Source: Deutsche Welle