Mozambique: Police promise to pay for funeral of teenager killed in Chimoio

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Mozambique: Police promise to pay for funeral of teenager killed in Chimoio

2:03 CAT | 11 Apr 2022

Screen grab: TVM

The Mozambican police will cover the funeral expenses of the teenager who was killed during riots for alleged human organ trafficking in Manica. Meanwhile, 16 other minors detained during the protests have been released.

The youngsters were among the 54 people arrested during the unrest on Wednesday (06-04), in which the teenager died after police fired to disperse residents protesting the disappearance of children in the 25 de Junho neighbourhood of the provincial capital of Manica.

“A commission has been created at the level of the provincial police command to deal with support for the bereaved family,” police spokesman Mário Arnaça told a press conference.

The police, Arnaça continued, had also released four of the adults detained, for lack of evidence, and opened criminal proceedings against 34 people for “theft and instigation of justice by one’s own hands”.

Unconfirmed suspected traffic

Also according to the authorities, a preliminary investigation and information gathering on the ground failed to confirm the discovery of frozen human organs in the properties of the trader suspected by the population of involvement.

“Police opened the freezer and found nothing strange, no human organs,” Arnaça reported.

The two missing children at the heart of the unrest are still missing. “Concerted work on their rescue is being carried out by the police and SERNIC,” he added.

The riot started when a group of people took to the street and destroyed two homes of a local trader suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of two of his employees’ children, after the population allegedly found parts of human organs stored in two refrigerators.

ALSO READ: Mozambique: Riot in Chimoio leads to one death and 54 arrests – AIM report | Watch

The suspect’s name had previously been allegedly associated with attempts to kidnap minors and cases of organ trafficking foiled by the police in Manica.

Judicial authorities put the region on “red alert” in 2012 after an “alarming” increase in reports of people and organ trafficking, many linked to witchcraft and other illicit enrichment practices.

Watch the TVM report.