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The victim, a teenage boy, was shot in the head when police fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse the riot. AT least 54 persons have been arrested, Miramar reports. [Image: Miramar]
A riot over alleged organ trafficking on Wednesday left one dead in central Mozambique, after police fired live bullets to disperse angry residents who were destroying property belonging to a trader thought to be a suspect, local sources told Lusa on Thursday.
The teenage boy was shot in the head when police fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse the group protesting against the disappearance of children in the 25 de Junho neighbourhood, a suburb of Chimoio, the provincial capital of Manica.
During the clashes, several people were injured and 54 were detained.
The population fears that the kidnappings are motivated by organ trafficking, a resident told Lusa.
The group that took to the streets destroyed two homes of a local trader, who is said to be suspected of having kidnapped two children of his employees and after the population allegedly found parts of human organs stored in two refrigerators.
Miramar reports that the children went missing on March 30, and their dead bodies were found this Wednesday showing signs of organs having been harvested.
“Two children were taken in the Piloto neighbourhood, at the house rented by the merchant to some of his employees. The children disappeared after the merchant went to the house,” resident Lúcia Nairosse told Lusa.
Another resident said that the children disappeared shortly after the merchant left the rented house in a vehicle with tinted windows, raising suspicions which led residents to the merchant’s other two residences, where frozen human organs were allegedly found.
In the wake of these events, the mob began to destroy the residences, a hotel and a commercial establishment, when the confrontation began.
Manica police spokesman Mário Arnaça told Lusa that the corporation was investigating the incident and continued to work to clarify the trader’s involvement in the alleged kidnappings.
The suspect’s name has already been associated with attempts to kidnap minors and cases of organ trafficking successfully foiled by the police in Manica.
Miramar reports that the unrest, which lasted from Wednesday until April 7th, affected Mozambican Women’s Day festivities in Manica.
“The PRM Provincial Police Command in Manica remains positioned to stop the protests and continues with investigations to find more people who have participated in promoting the disorder,” it adds.
The occurrence of disappearances allegedly linked to organ trafficking is recurrent in the province.
Calling the rise in cases of trafficking in persons and human organs, many linked to witchcraft and other illicit enrichment practices, “alarming”, judicial authorities put the region on “red alert” in 2012.
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