Zavala: Three children meet gruesome deaths in suspected arson fire

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Zavala: Three children meet gruesome deaths in suspected arson fire

2:35 CAT | 11 Sep 2020

Photo: O País

A man is accused of setting fire to his sister-in-law’s house in Zavala district, Inhambane province, burning three children to death, O País reports. The woman, the mother of one of the victims and grandmother of the two others, who was injured in the fire, told O País that a disagreement with the presumed murderer, now in prison, had been going on since 2015.

It is yet another case of alleged witchcraft ending in tragedy.

Cacilda Bande claims that her brother-in-law since 2015 had never liked her and did not want to see her in his home. But, in addition to living close to her brother-in-law, Cacilda depended on the water supply in his house.

In the past two weeks, the situation has worsened, and the woman has gone to sleep in a different room, fearing that she would be attacked at night. But this was not enough, and she eventually went to spend the night with the six children in the hut.

That day, to everyone’s dismay, two individuals went to the woman’s room at night and “set fire to the hut”.

Cacilda says that, when she awoke, the door and the ceiling were already on fire. She managed, however, to save one child, and the other escaped on his own.

The fire already being intense, the lady ran to another part of the house to save yet another child, but the fire continued to intensify and she was unable to save the other three children.

In this hut ended the short lives of three children, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One child is the nine-year-old son of Cacilda, and the other two, her grandchildren aged seven and eight. The children paid for the alleged “fury of their uncle” with their lives Cacilda says.

Despite escaping with her life, Cacilda was injured and evacuated to Quissico District Hospital. More than just the pain of her wounds, she now has to deal with the pain of losing her son and grandchildren.

Cacilda’s current husband Pedro Tomás has closely followed the disagreement between his wife and brother-in-law, the brother of the deceased husband.

Tomás told O País that he and other family members had established that his brother-in-law sent two people to kill his wife, each of whom would receive three head of cattle in payment. But, as they only killed two children, “they received only two head in payment”.

The accused individual was arrested last Wednesday and confined in Inharrime Penitentiary, Inhambane province.

The National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) says it expects to arrest others allegedly involved in the case in the next few days.

By Hugo Firmino

Source: O País