Mozambique: Government ‘very concerned’ over wave of police officer killings – minister

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Government ‘very concerned’ over wave of police officer killings – minister

7:45 CAT | 28 Oct 2025

Photo: O País

Mozambique’s Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs acknowledged on Monday that he was “very concerned” about the wave of murders of police officers, asking the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate and hold the perpetrators accountable.

“It’s clear that the Mozambican government is very concerned about various crimes over the last few days, but mainly about the heinous crimes that have been taking place, especially in the elimination of police officers. It’s a very big concern,” said Mateus Saize, on the sidelines of the National Conference of the National Association of Mozambican Jurists (ANJUR).

The latest of at least six cases of this kind, on the outskirts of Maputo alone, involved a commander of the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM), who was shot dead early on Thursday evening, a source from the corporation confirmed to Lusa the same day, and investigations are underway.

Speaking to journalists, Mateus Saize said that the Mozambican government “is attentive” to cases of murder of police officers, asking the Attorney General’s Office, through the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic), to move forward with investigations to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable.

“We believe that both the Attorney General’s Office, through SERNIC, and the Ministry of the Interior itself, will find investigative mechanisms so that we can identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. We, as a government, are attentive to what is happening,” said Mateus Saize.

Asked whether speeding up investigations and prosecutions, including accountability, would stop police officers being shot dead, the minister said that the executive is reinforcing criminal investigation institutions with the means to shed light on crimes.

“The speed of proceedings, investigation and judgement is the government’s concern, but there are mechanisms that are established by law, and these are what we should base our investigations on. We are concerned, yes, not just because it’s affecting police officers, but all crimes, all citizens. The government is concerned about stopping this type of crime,” said Mateus Saize.

In the latest case, the district commander of Marracuene, in Maputo province, in the south of the country, was shot inside a car along the Circular Road, in the municipality of Matola.

This was the sixth violent event of its kind in Matola, a municipality on the outskirts of the capital, since June, in which Mozambican police officers were involved.

The previous case took place on the morning of 1 October, when the Mozambican police confirmed that a Sernic agent had been targeted and wounded in the shootout that led to the death of two people, hit by stray bullets, in Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo.

Another case occurred on the morning of 9 September, when a sergeant major was shot dead while inside his vehicle in an area called Mangueiras, the area of jurisdiction of the seventh police station in the T3 neighbourhood of Maputo province.

On 4 July, at least four people were killed in an exchange of fire with PRM agents during an operation to prevent a robbery at a construction company in Matola.

On 2 July, the PRM confirmed the murder of two police officers, shot 54 times in the morning, and the gunshot wounds of a 78-year-old woman, also in Matola, on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital.

The first case also took place in Matola, on the night of 11 June, when an agent from the PRM’s Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) was shot dead with around 50 bullets in the Nkobe neighbourhood by three men who have not yet been identified.

Source: Lusa