Mozambique: Tete authorities worried after explosive devices found

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Mozambique: Tete authorities worried after explosive devices found

2:55 CAT | 13 Nov 2019

FILE: Authorities look for mines with metal detectors in Gaza province, 2009. [File photo: DW]

Eleven explosive devices have been found near the city of Tete in central Mozambique since September, and four children have died in an explosion. Police have asked the population to report any suspicious objects.

Police in Tete say the explosive devices were in the possession of residents of the Samora Machel neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tete city. According to police spokesman, Feliciano da Câmara, they were being kept in order to extract the mercury from them.

Neighbourhood residents say the area where the explosive devices were found used to be a shooting range, but the city’s growth meant it had become a residential area.

Authorities alerted

“This mountain was a military zone for a long period of time,” resident Jeremias Alberto tells DW Africa. “There was a bomb here near the mountain, which I reported it to the second and fifth police stations. The second station sent police to remove it,” he says.

The first alert came on September 19th, when a device children were playing with exploded, killing four. Police then mounted a search, which has so far turned up eleven explosive devices.

PRM request

“After the tragedy [in September], people became wary of handing over these explosive devices for fear of reprisals, and were rather choosing to abandon them in various places. It is in this context that the police have gradually discovered these artefacts in the Samora Machel neighbourhood,” police spokesman Feliciano da Câmara said.
Da Camara called on the public to report any cause for suspicion to the police, and not to approach any suspicious device, because of the danger they represent.

“We will go to the site and remove them safely,” he said.

Source: Deutsche Welle