Mozambique: Two individuals arrested on charges of murdering young woman in Zimpeto

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Mozambique: Two individuals arrested on charges of murdering young woman in Zimpeto

3:28 CAT | 29 Apr 2020

Photo: O País

A 26-year-old woman was raped and murdered in the Zimpeto neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Maputo city, on Thursday night. The police have arrested two suspects, who deny murdering the woman but have confessed to stealing the victim’s purse.

Last Thursday night, the victim was returning from work and got out at one of the stops on the Maputo Ring Road serving Zimpeto. After disembarking, she walked along an unlit street, not realising that she was being followed by two strangers – men under 30 years of age.

The police say these are the two men are involved in the rape and subsequent murder of the victim, while the individuals themselves admit to having approached and assaulted the victim, eventually stealing her assets, but deny that they raped and murdered her.

In the company of police and journalists, the suspects reiterated the course of the fateful night.

“I squeezed her neck and took the bag, and then three young men are coming and then we ran out with the bag, we ran with the bag both of us, and what happened we don’t know [we don’t know] who raped, we left her alive and she was talking,” said one of the suspects, standing shackled to his partner in crime.

The second suspect also said that they throttled the victim. “I took the bag and ran and ran, I don’t know that I raped her,” he said.

The victim’s body was found in the bathroom of an uninhabited house in the Zimpeto neighbourhood where it is believed that she was raped and murdered.

The crime has generated outrage among Zimpeto residents. Carla Muchanga, one of those who saw the victim’s body in the early hours of last Friday, told ‘O País’ that such things had never been experienced there before, and bemoaned the young woman’s death. Her funeral took place at the Nwa Chidjuko cemetery on Tuesday morning.

According to the police, the individuals, after committing the crime, called the victim’s mother to demand money to indicate the whereabouts of the deceased.

“It is important to mention that the individuals, after committing the crime, called the victim’s mother and demanded 4,000 meticais for indicating where her daughter was. The lady wanted to know where her daughter was very much and, being unsuccessful, contacted one of our subunits, which put in train the steps that culminated in the arrest of these individuals,” Maputo police spokesman Leonel Muchina told journalists.

In connection with the incident, it might be noted that the unrest recorded at the Estrela Vermelha market in Maputo on Monday was the result of the tracking and location of the victim’s stolen phone, which had already been sold for 1,900 meticais.

By Amândio Borges

Source: O País