Seven bodies found in Manica bush

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Seven bodies found in Manica bush

4:07 CAT | 15 Mar 2016

VOA Portugues

At least seven bodies were found last weekend in Manica province’s Gondola and Sussendenga districts, an area where Renamo’s influence is strong and cases of kidnapping and the execution of opposition members have been reported.

Three bodies of young people about 25 years old were found on Saturday in bush near Zimpinga in Gondola district, near where the road convoy of Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama was ambushed and destroyed on 25 September last year.

Four other men were found dead in bush near the Revue river in Sussendenga district. According to the police none had identification.

“In Amatongas, Gondola district, we found three bodies, all male and about 25 years old,” said Manica police spokesperson Elcídia Filipe, without referring to the bodies found in Sussendenga.

In an off-the-record interview, an employee at Sussendenga district hospital told VOA that four dead male bodies were found on the banks of the river Revue and taken to the local morgue, where they remain unclaimed.

A government official in Amatongas however said that the three youths had been identified. One was from Gorongosa, Sofala, the second from Guro and the third from Catandica, Manica, and may have been strangled to death.

“On Friday night there were suspicious movements in Zimpinga, exactly where Afonso Dhlakama’s convoy was attacked on 25 September, and on Saturday we found three dead young men there. One was called Manuel, the second Orlando and the third Zeca,” said the official, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In February, Renamo said two of its members in Gondola had been kidnapped, including the party’s district commissioner, later found dead in Matarara, Sussendenga district.

Manica, Sofala and Tete provinces in central Mozambique have seen a wave of kidnapping and executions, with Frelimo and Renamo accusing each other of responsibility in an atmosphere of a political and military tension characterized by attacks on civilian vehicles on Mozambique principal highway.

Source: VOA Portugues