Maputo, 6 Jun (AIM) – Displaced people who are fleeing Islamist terrorists and their host families in the town of Chiúre, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, have accused the peasant militia, usually referred to as “local forces”, of violating human rights and mistreating them following a curfew that they illegally imposed in the region.
In recent months, some administrative posts in Chiúre district have been the target of terrorist attacks.
According to sources cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique”, the local forces imposed a curfew as of 19.00, and made clear that anyone found travelling along the town’s roads after this time will be threatened, tortured and even extorted for money.
“It’s true. There are complaints everywhere about the actions of members of the local force. All they have to do is find people and they attack them mercilessly and take their money. It’s been going on since April”, a source said.
Another source said “Just this week, we saw people being beaten up because they were gathered here in the market. If they demanded documents, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but that’s not what happens. They just mistreat people.”
According to another source, even the students on the evening course do not escape the abuses of members of the local force.
The mayor of Chiúre municipality, Alícora Intutunha, also went public to denounce the violation of human rights, in which the main victims of the Mozambican Forces (FDS) and the local force are residents and, in particular, motorbike taxi operators, when at around 7pm they are found circulating on the public highway.
He explained that the FDS and the district administration had not formally informed him of the entry into force of a curfew.
For his part, the Administrator of Chiúre district, Oliveira Amimo, denied that the government had decreed a curfew.
(AIM)
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