Maputo, 6 Feb (AIM) – An angry crowd on Friday lynched one of three men suspected of killing an albino child in the town of Morrumbala, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia.
Three days earlier, according to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”, criminals kidnapped the child, murdered him and amputated his legs. They broke into his parents’ house, and stabbed his mother and father.
The limbless corpse of the child was found in a patch of Morrumbala bush. This gruesome crime infuriated residents of the town, who set out to hunt down the murderers.
They caught one man who supposedly confessed to the killing, and identified his two accomplices. The crowd then beat the man to death.
On Saturday, one of the alleged ringleaders was tracked down, and the crown wanted to lynch him too. But his life was saved, thanks to police intervention.
In the clash, the police used rubber bullets and live ammunition. Five members of the crowd were hit, one of whom, a 24 year old youth, died. The other four were treated in the local hospital.
At a Monday press conference, the spokesperson for the Zambezia provincial police command, Miguel Caetano, said that, when the police became aware of the murder of the albino child, it launched a hunt for the killers, and arrested one of them, who was taken to the cells of the district command.
When the local residents found out about the arrest, they attacked the police command. Caetano said the crowd used stones, bottles and clubs as they laid siege to the command.
“They wanted to invade the cells and take out the detainee”, he continued. “Their goal was to lynch the citizen who was under police custody. The police used all their means of persuasion, to oblige the crowd to retreat”.
Caetano gave no details about the members of the crowd killed or injured by the police.
Although no explanation for the murder of the child has been given, it seems likely that he fell victim to the superstition that the body parts of albinos possess magical powers. They are used in rituals that are supposed to grant the criminals wealth and power.
(AIM)
Pf/ (374)
