Six-year-old boy killed at home after stray bullet hit him in the chest – Matola

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Six-year-old boy killed at home after stray bullet hit him in the chest – Matola

11:54 CAT | 04 May 2018

O País

Joaquim Flate Mangwazi, a six-year-old boy, died yesterday when he was hit him in the chest by a bullet presumably fired by someone at a nearby military barracks, O País reported yesterday.

The incident happened at Block 9 in the Siduava neighbourhood. Local residents say the shot that struck the child was presumably fired by military personnel who were conducting military exercises that week.

Ercílio Mboana is one of the neighbourhood residents and claims shots from the barracks were frequent.

“What happened was, because of the military training, they were firing shots this way and hit a child at home,” Mboana explained.

The residents are concerned that their complaints about the shooting are not being addressed.

“We have already presented the problem, but we have never had an answer,” he said.

At the scene, O Pais found one of the children who were with the victim at the time of the incident, who said that they were inside a shack when they heard a noise. He was sitting and two of his friends, including the victim, were standing.

“There were two standing, the one who was behind jumped and the other, who was in front, did not realise that it was a bullet. It hit him. I held him and asked, “What’s going on?”

He did not speak, then he fell. I said: “Quito wake up! Quito wake up! He did not wake up,” the child said.

Another resident of the same neighbourhood, Albertina Bila, says her home has also been hit by bullet fired by the military during training, which made a hole in a pan.

“We are already tired of the military. When they shoot, they aim at our homes, and we have to hide with the children. And now they have killed our son,” she said.

The child’s body was removed by the criminal police, the commander of the Matola 9th police station Gilberto Inguane saying that, although military exercises at the local barracks included firing, it was premature to relate this to the child’s death.

“We cannot say whether the death of the child is a direct consequence of the military exercise or not. We must allow those whose job it is to investigate time. We cannot get ahead of that,” he concluded.

A military official at the barracks declined to make a statement.

But residents’ complaints about the military do not end here. In fact, the boy’s death has sharpened the discontent of the residents, who say that they have been suffering at the hands of soldiers in the streets near the barracks. Residents claim they are beaten and raped, as well as being the victims of extortion.

“They rape our old women, snatch our hoes and threaten us whenever they cross our paths,” said Ercílio Mboana.

Another resident, José Mazive, says: “I’ve had my documents snatched off me for no reason. I went back and found them. When they [the military] bump into us in the vegetable plots, they beat and rape us. But they are supposed to be here to protect us. We want them to be transferred to another site.”

By Hermenegildo Socrates

Source: O País