Mozambique: Police commission to investigate Songo accident – Watch

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Mozambique: Police commission to investigate Songo accident – Watch

2:04 CAT | 24 Sep 2019

The Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) are to create a commission to investigate the causes of an accident in Songo, in Tete province, central Mozambique, after a rally.

The death toll is now at six, according to the report below by TV Miramar.

According to Domingos Mahumane, spokesman for the Traffic Police in Tete, quoted by Lusa, the authorities are currently waiting for the preliminary results of the technical teams.

“But let us wait for technical expertise to determine the real causes of the road accident,” said the Traffic Police spokesman, quoted by the Mozambique Information Agency.

ALSO READ: Mozambique elections: Songo survivors tell how fatal crash happened – By Joseph Hanlon

The accident occurred at the exit of the village of Songo, near the Cahora Bassa reservoir, with a truck carrying party supporters, in its cargo bay. They were returning to their places of origin after attending a rally of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).

The truck was lost shortly after starting its journey, it left the road, slipping onto a slope where it overturned, according to a statement from the Frelimo Provincial Election Preparation Office, in Tete province.

The first analysis by the Mozambican police pointed to mechanical failures.

Contradictory reports

There were 56 people injured, 15 of them in serious condition, Lusa reports, adding that ” by early Monday afternoon, 36 of the seriously injured were stable and discharged” .

However, the Miramar reporter, Fungae Caetano, interviews the director of Songo Rural hospital (video below) and the numbers are different.

Doctor Begona Paulo says: “We have received 61 victims, of which 57 injured. Seventeen [injured] victims were in critical condition and were transferred to Tete Provincial Hospital. We currently have four victims hospitalised and 36 were discharged.”

Miramar further reports that the Tete Provincial Hospital informed that two victims transferred from Songo had died.

During a rally held in Tete on Monday, Frelimo’s candidate for the presidency and Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, requested a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the accident.

On 11 September, after a Frelimo rally in Nampula, ten people died when a crowd left a football stadium where the event was taking place in a disorderly manner.