Superstition Leads To Attack On Police In Mocuba
Maputo, 24 Jan (AIM) – Rioters attempted to invade the district police command in the town of Mocuba, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, on Friday, according to a report carried by the independent television station STV.
The police eventually used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, but not before they had smashed the windows in a police vehicle.
The rioters demanded that the police hand over two men whom they clamed were sorcerers, but the police had no intention of delivering them to almost certain death.
The men were chased by the crowd which claimed they were in control of a man-eating crocodile, and took refuge in the police command. The Mocuba district police commander, Nolito Wakuto, confirmed that hIs men had used tear gas, but would not say whether any of the rioters had been detained.
The two alleged sorcerers were said to use black magic to control a crocodile that attacked people on the banks of the Licungo river. Attacks by crocodiles and other dangerous animals are frequently attributed to witchcraft rather than to natural, predatory behaviour.
In recent years, authorities in some parts of the country have been accused of collaborating with vampires. The claim that officials are working with the “chupa-sangue” (bloodsuckers) led in 2017 to serious rioting in Gile district, also in Zambezia, where government and police buildings were vandalized in the hunt for vampires.
(AIM)
Pf/
