Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police have arrested two groups of people, believed to be members of a fundamentalist religious sect, in the bush of the western province of Tete, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.
The first arrests were of 14 people, all adult men, on 7 September. They were intercepted in a vehicle in the interior of Tsangano district. A much larger group, of 44 people (eight men, 19 women and 17 children aged between four months and 17 years) was detained last Sunday in a camp in the village of Chicachirue, on the border between Angonia and Tsangano districts.
According to Feliciano da Camara, the spokesperson of the Tete provincial police command, the group included four teachers, who teach in schools in the two districts. All the adults had renounced their jobs and all their worldly possessions, da Camara said, in favour of a “supposedly religious ceremony” of a sect which the group did not identify.
“Work is under way to identify the religious sect”, he said. He noted that the group had brought food and clothes with them, perhaps indicating that they planned to stay for some time at the camp.
Da Camara said the group, currently held in the Angonia police command, will be charged with violating the government rules introduced to restrict the spread of Covid-19. Those rules ban all religious gatherings during the pandemic.
Da Camara added that the police are gathering information to see if the group has any links with the islamist terrorists active in Cabo Delgado province.
