Mozambican Police Arrest Two Soldiers Turned Bandits – Tete, Mozambique

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Mozambican Police Arrest Two Soldiers Turned Bandits – Tete, Mozambique

8:12 CAT | 11 Feb 2016

In file Club of Mozambique.

The Mozambican police on Friday arrested two soldiers, accused of attacking a civilian vehicle, and injuring three of its occupants, reports the Beira daily “Diario de Mocambique”.

The attack took place in the Nkondezi region, on the boundary between Tsangano and Moatize districts, and near the Malawian border. This is an area which has seen sporadic clashes between the defence and security forces and gunmen of the former rebel movement Renamo.

The attack occurred at about 01.00 in the morning of 3 February, which is Mozambican Heroes’ Day, and a public holiday. The police believe the two soldiers turned bandit intended to blame Renamo for the attack.

The vehicle targeted was a truck carrying assorted merchandise which the soldiers intended to loot. But things went wrong for them when the driver refused to obey their order to stop and drove his truck straight through the ambush. Although wounded in the arm, he continued to drive assisted by his son. The soldiers used their AK-47 rifles to rake the truck with gunfire, injuring two passengers in addition to the driver.

This was the second attack in the Nkondezi region attributed to members of the armed forces. The earlier attack resulted in injuries to fuve people. The authors were not caught, but eye-witnesses insisted that the attackers were wearing uniforms of the Mozambican armed forces (FADM).

This time the police were able to track down the culprits and found that they were two 23 year old soldiers, named Arquimedes Bernardino and Borges Francisco dos Anjos. The two have confessed to the attack and are currently incarcerated in police cells in Tsangano.

Bernadino and dos Anjos were stationed, not at Nkondezi, but in the Chingodzi barracks on the outskirts of Tete city. They left the barracks and went to Nkondezi with their guns hidden in their rucksacks. Unless on duty, it is illegal for soldiers to carry their firearms outside the barracks. But apparently nobody spotted the guns, ether at the barracks gate or at the checkpoints along the road.

“We think this was a failing”, said the Tete provincial police spokesperson, Luis Nudia. “On leaving their posts they should not have been carrying firearms. The military rucksacks they were carrying should have been searched, but this did not happen. So they passed through checkpoints with the guns they used to attack a civilian vehicle”.

“They will answer for the crimes of abandoning their posts, carrying firearms without authorization, armed robbery, assault, and the use of weapons of war for personal purposes”, added Nudia. He said this was the first case in Tete in which the police have arrested soldiers accused of attacking vehicles.

Nudia said the case will be channelled to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, so that the soldiers can be formally charged and stand trial.

Source: AIM