Mozambique: Interior Minister claims he knows nothing about death squads – Watch

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Mozambique: Interior Minister claims he knows nothing about death squads – Watch

1:58 CAT | 17 Apr 2025

Photo: Miramar

Mozambican Interior Minister Paulo Chachine declared on Wednesday that he knows nothing about the existence of death squads dedicated to assassinating critics of the government.

For several years, there have been unsolved murders, which opposition figures have blamed on death squads operated by the police.

Last Sunday, in the central city of Quelimane, unidentified gunmen attempted to kill musician and political activist Joel Amaral, a key figure in mobilising support for former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane. The would-be assassins’ bullets struck Amaral in the arm and head, but he survived and is currently in the intensive care unit in Quelimane Central Hospital.

The shooting has been blamed on a death squad, but, after a ceremony opening a course for police sergeants, in the central district of Nhamatanda, Chachine told reporters he knows nothing about the existence of any death squads. “I have read in some of the press about death squads”, he said. “But I don’t know if they exist or where they exist”.

The Minister must have a short memory. For one death squad, consisting of members of elite police units, was caught in the southern city of Xai-Xai in 2019, when their escape vehicle was involved in a major traffic accident.

Their victim was civil society and election observation activist Anastacio Matavel. He was the Executive Director of the Gaza Provincial Forum of NGOs (FONGAZA) and Gaza representative of the election observation coalition known as the “Sala da Paz” (Peace Room). The killers shot Matavel ten times as he sat behind the steering wheel of his car, and then tried to speed away from Xai-Xai.

The death squad that gunned Matavel down consisted of five people, all of them members of the police force. They might never have been identified, if the murder had gone to plan. But their escape vehicle was involved in a serious traffic accident as they tried to leave Xai-Xai. Two of the assassins (Nobrega Chauque and Martins Wiliamo) died in the crash, two (Edson Silica and Euclidio Mapulasse) survived and were arrested, and the fifth (Agapito Matavele) fled from the country and is believed to be in South Africa.

The surviving murderers went on trial in Xai-Xai in June 2020. The court sentenced Silica to 24 years imprisonment and Mapulasse to 23 years.

Also in the dock were the Gaza head of the police Special Operations Group (GOE), Tudela Guirrego, and the Gaza commander of the UIR (Rapid Intervention Unit, the Mozambican equivalent of the riot police). Alfredo Macuacua. The court regarded these two officers as the “moral authors” of the murder, and sentenced them each to 24 years.

In this case, there could be no doubt: here was a death squad operating in the heart of elite police units in Gaza province. Has the Interior Minister forgotten this crime? Or does he believe there was only one death squad and it has now been dismantled?

Reporters also asked Chachine about the ambush on 8 April on the main north-south road (EN1) in which unidentified raiders set seven vehicles on fire.

The Minister guaranteed that investigations are continuing, but no suspects have been detained. “We are working to discover what is behind these attacks”, he said. “The only thing we know is that these attacks are bad, and cause losses”.