Mozambique: Autopsy points to assault as possible cause of death of Quelimane Municipal Assembly member

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Mozambique: Autopsy points to assault as possible cause of death of Quelimane Municipal Assembly member

6:01 CAT | 14 Feb 2024

Image: STV

The results of an autopsy carried out by the Mozambican health authorities indicate that an assault may have been the cause of the death of Celeste Mucunha, a recently sworn-in Quelimane municipal assembly politician.

According to the coroner at Quelimane Central Hospital, Emílio Chipangura, the victim’s body showed “suggestive injuries that were caused by a blunt object and could have resulted in her death”.

Quoted on Sunday by Radio Mozambique, Chipangura said the victim was “charred” after the attack.

The body of Frelimo politician Celeste Mucunha was found on Friday at around 05:00 a.m. in Nicoadala, about 15 kilometres from Quelimane, the provincial capital of Zambézia, police spokesman Miguel Caetano told Lusa.

According to the coroner, the victim’s body was in an “advanced state of charring”.

Mucunha was last seen on Wednesday, the day she was sworn in as a new member of Quelimane’s municipal assembly.

Quelimane is among the five municipalities out of a total of 65 which Frelimo did not win in the last elections, Manuel de Araújo, from the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition force, having been re-elected to the position of mayor.

READ: Mozambique: Member of Municipal Assembly found dead in Nicoadala

Like Maputo, the Mozambican capital, Quelimane was one of the municipalities that registered strong protests at the results of the October 11 elections after the announcement of the first numbers by the National Elections Commission (CNE), which gave victory to Frelimo.

Frelimo won 60 of the country’s 65 municipalities, with Renamo winning in four, half of the eight it won in 2018, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) keeping the city of Beira, which it has governed since 2003.

The results of the October vote were strongly contested by the opposition and civil society.

Source: Lusa