Mozambique: Police impose curfew in Mueda municipality

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Mozambique: Police impose curfew in Mueda municipality

3:20 CAT | 17 Aug 2020

File photo: DW

The Mozambican police have banned the movement of people and banking operations in Mueda municipality, in the north of the country, between 18:30 p.m. and 06:30 a.m., because of the alleged risk of armed attacks.

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) says the measure is illegal.

Police structures in Mueda, Cabo Delgado province, have also prohibited any type of commercial activity between these times, a statement from the corporation announces.

The statement, signed by the chief secretary of the district command in Mueda, deputy inspector Alberto Patrício, warns that police will impose “severe measures” on those who fail to observe the curfew.

“Maintaining order and tranquillity is our priority,” the statement, released on social media networks, proclaims.

Police emphasise that the curfew aims to “facilitate the control of movement in the municipal village of Mueda, in the face of threats posed by the insurgency”.

Illegal measure

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a Mozambican non-governmental organisation, says the curfew imposed in the municipality is illegal and must be annulled.

“The limitation of rights, freedoms and constitutional guarantees can only be made under the terms of the Constitution of the Republic,” a note from the CDD released this Saturday (15.08) reads.

Despite contacts by Lusa, the PRM General Command and the police command in the province of Cabo Delgado have not yet issued a comment on the case.

The district capital of Mueda has never been attacked by the armed groups operating in northern Cabo Delgado since 2017, although some parts the district have been affected by the groups’ actions.

Attacks by armed groups, which started in Mocímboa da Praia in 2017, have already caused at least 1,059 deaths, with some of the actions claimed by the Islamic State group ‘jihadist’.

According to the United Nations, armed violence in this province of northern Mozambique has forced 250,000 people to flee from districts affected by insecurity in the north of the province.

Source: Deutsche Welle