Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Archbishop of Nampula argued this Tuesday that Mozambique needs to stop the “killings” for “true reconciliation”, questioning the proportionality of the police reaction in the attack in which five members of a ‘Naparamas’ paramilitary group were killed by the authorities in tMutuali, Malema district, in he province.
“Let us not kill each other (…). True reconciliation, in our opinion, will not be possible with killings, but rather with dialogue,” Inácio Saure said in an interview with Lusa in Nampula, northern Mozambique.
The issue at hand is the death of five members of the Naparamas paramilitary group in Malema district on Thursday which, according to the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, was the result of an attack on a police position in the region.
“The group arrived armed with spears, machetes, sledgehammers and other blunt instruments, as well as stones,” police spokesperson Rosa Chaúque told a press conference on Saturday.
Citing data obtained locally, Archbishop Saure said that the five people were shot by an elite police unit, in an episode in which he said he had doubts about the proportionality of the police response.
“I don’t know if the Naparamas really wanted to attack the police. But if that was the case, was the reaction really appropriate?” he asked.
According to the Archbishop, some of the victims’ relatives took refuge in the parish that same day, fearing the actions of the police force.
“We had women who took refuge in the parish house and told us that they were afraid because their husbands had been killed and they were also afraid (…). There were people who were afraid and only returned to their homes the following day,” he added.
At a time when calls for reconciliation are multiplying after months of chaos and unrest resulting from the post-election protests, for Inácio Saure, dialogue is essential.
“We need to talk to people. Let’s not continue killing each other, that’s not how we’re going to develop Mozambique,” he stressed.
The Naparamas are Mozambican community paramilitaries that emerged during the civil war in the 1980s, combining traditional knowledge and mystical elements to fight their enemies.
Historically, the Naparamas classify themselves as a self-defence force. Their members undergo initiation rites which they believe give them “supernatural protection” and make them immune, even to bullets.
In February, four alleged members of the group were killed after clashes with the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) while they were trying to invade an administrative post in the province of Zambézia, in the centre of the country, an official source said at the time.
On January 2, alleged Naparama members beheaded a neighbourhood secretary in Morrumbala district, Zambézia province, and placed the victim’s head in a public square, a police source told Lusa.
Also in Nampula province, the PRM shot seven members of the same group who were trying to invade an administrative post there, police authorities said on February 7, without confirming whether the seven were killed.
On 12 February, the President of Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, asked the new deputy commander-general of the PRM, Aquilasse Manda, to combat attacks attributed to the Naparamas paramilitary group, carried out in Zambézia province, indicating that they were “attempting to block” transit routes vital for the country’s development.
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