Mozambique: Security Forces Killed At Least 10 Children During Demonstrations – Human Rights Watch

Maputo — The international NGO, Human Rights Watch (HRW), claims that the Mozambican security forces killed at least 10 children and injured dozens more during mass demonstrations called by the presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in order to protest against the allegedly fraudulent results of the elections held on 9 October.

“One 13-year-old girl was caught in a crowd of people fleeing tear gas and gunfire… One of the bullets hit her in the neck, and she instantly fell to the ground and died. There are nine additional cases of children killed and at least 36 other children injured by gunfire during the protests’, reads a Monday statement from HRW.

According to the document, the Mozambican authorities have not responded to HRW’s claims on these figures.

“Police have also detained hundreds of children, in many cases for days, without notifying their families, in violation of international human rights law’, HRW said.

According to the Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), since the demonstrations started on 21 October, over 60 people were shot dead by Police and hundreds were injured.

Mothers and wives of those who were victimized during demonstrations protested on Monday in front of the Constitutional Council (CC), Mozambique’s highest body in matters of electoral law, in order to demand “electoral justice’ and State liability for the damage caused.

“We are in this place because we carry pain. The government said we should go and vote, but at no point did it tell us that we should vote for the 25 shots [in reference to the number of bullets that criminals shot to murder Mondlane’s lawyer, Elvino Dias, and Podemos elections agent, Paulo Guambe]. They did not tell us that our children would die from bullets and tear gas’, said one of the protesters.

Another protester said “‘we came here to ask for justice to be done. Someone must be held responsible for the death of our children. Our children are dead, others are injured and others are still in hospital beds.’

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