Hundreds march in condemnation of murders in Beira, central Mozambique

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Hundreds march in condemnation of murders in Beira, central Mozambique

3:58 CAT | 14 Nov 2022

Photo: Forum Mulher

Hundreds of people, including many sex workers. marched along avenues in the city of Beira, capital of Mozambique’s central Sofala province, this Saturday, in protest at a wave of unsolved murders mainly targeting women in the province.

“We are asking for help. We are dying – it is already too much for us sex workers,” Hermelinda Sueira told journalists during the march.

Sueira said that some victims were killed by strangers who seduced them into leaving prostitution with the promise of better-paying jobs.

“But when they arrive at the place [alleged workplace], the story is different; they are beaten, raped and murdered,” she related.

Attack on human rights

Cheila Davide, a social activist, called the murders of women an attack on the human rights of sex workers.

“It is sad that this is happening here in the city of Beira. We want peace – we cannot even move about freely,” Davide said.

The activist pleaded for the intensification of policing and surveillance in Beira’s peripheral neighbourhoods.

At least 13 homicides have been registered in the last four weeks in Sofala, nine of them in Beira, the provincial capital, according to Dércio Chacate, spokesman for the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), who also announced the arrest of several suspects.

READ: Police parade 11 suspected of involvement in homicides in Beira – Lusa report

The wave of violent murders recorded since October is alarming the residents of the precarious neighbourhoods that surround the provincial capital.

Source: Deutsche Welle