Deputy Interior Minister Jose Mandra told AIM on Monday that the germ of truth behind the rumour was that two Renamo members, including a parliamentary deputy, Jose Samo Gudo, had held a meeting in the Mirona region of Manhica in order to try and persuade the local population not to take part in the forthcoming elections (there are municipal elections scheduled for 20 November, and general elections for October 2014).
About 80 Renamo sympathizers attended the meeting, at the end of which they slaughtered an ox and held a party.
“That is all that happened in Manhica”, said Mandra. He stressed that, apart from the attacks against four vehicles in Muxungue, in Sofala province, on Saturday, attributed to a group of Renamo members, no other incidents had been reported anywhere in the country.
More details are now available about the Saturday ambushes. According to a detailed report in Monday’s issue of the daily paper “Noticias”, four vehicles (and not three, as earlier reported) came under attack. They were two buses, a fuel truck, and a Toyota Hino ten tonne truck.
The three men who died were all travelling in the Toyota and have been named as Aventina Sambo, Tojo Amunone, and Pedro Chaisse. Sambo was a businessman who sold doors for house construction and Amunone was one of his workers. The two travelled between Maputo and the central city of Quelimane.
A fourth, unnamed person travelling in the vehicle escaped. He said the driver obeyed the orders given by the armed men to stop the truck. The assailants, who were wearing green uniforms, stole money and other valuables from their victims, beat them up, and then shot them in cold blood. The man who escaped informed Sambo’s family by cell phone about what had happened.
The drivers of both the buses refused to obey the orders to stop and drove through the ambushes. This may have saved many lives. The bandits did open fire on one of the buses, injuring three people who were later treated in Muxungue Rural Hospital.
Post published in: Africa News