Mozambique: Funeral held for young man shot in the head by police – O País

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Mozambique: Funeral held for young man shot in the head by police – O País

1:27 CAT | 30 Oct 2024

Image: O País

A 23-year-old man was shot dead by police in Matola’s T3 neighbourhood on Friday night, in the heat of the protests there.

According to witnesses, Sílvio José, also known as Bacanias, was socialising with friends in a ‘baraca’ when three of the four non-uniformed officers chasing protesters fired shots in the air.

The three passed by and continued running, but the fourth, who carried “a gun on his back and was not firing”, suddenly fired from a distance of about 20 metres, hitting Bacanias in the head.

“When it happened, we didn’t imagine it was anything serious, we thought those shots were fired into the air, but then we saw that they weren’t, he was on the ground. I ran away because I was traumatised, but when I came back, I saw the officer approaching, he kicked him, realised he wasn’t moving and said “we killed someone here”, then he got into the vehicle and left,” said one of the companions, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After that, Bakanias’ body was taken to the hospital, leaving parts of his head still scattered on the ground.

Clutching his cousin’s death certificate, Armando Chichava said the police action was intentional.

“It was point-blank range, it wasn’t a stray bullet. Our question is, why did this happen? What did he do that was so serious as to deserve this? Does this attitude justify taking a life?” Armando asks.

After the incident, family members and witnesses went to the police station and presented a photo of the police officer accused of having fired the fatal shot. They received confirmation that the officer was indeed assigned to that unit, but were told that nothing could be done.

Since then, his cousin Armando explains, no one has come forward to offer any support or to explain what “crime” Bakanias committed, so the family were demanding justice.

The funeral was held this Tuesday in a full cemetery in Matola. In addition to funeral hymns, people sang for justice and called for democracy in the country.

In addition to Bakanias, the police that Friday claimed other victims in the T3 neighbourhood, including a young man, a friend of the deceased, who was hit in the back by a tear gas round.