Police open fire during protest at rising prices
Source: Agencies |
September 2, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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POLICE yesterday opened fire on stone-throwing mobs in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, who were protesting at rising prices, killing seven people.
Police had declared the marches illegal. Word had been passed around for days in the former Portuguese colony in southeast Africa that there would be demonstrations.
Mozambicans have seen the price of a loaf of bread rise by 25 percent in the past year. Fuel and water costs also have risen.
Thousands of people, mostly young men, turned out yesterday. They lined the streets of Bagamoyo, an impoverished neighborhood just north of downtown Maputo. As they moved into the city center, they burned tires and looted shops and warehouses. Protests were also reported in other areas of the capital.
Horatio Antonio, a 45-year-old unemployed man, said he saw police open fire without provocation. "People are angry because prices are going up: petrol, rice, water, electricity, everything," Antonio said.
A witness described a women running along the road to the airport after the riots, rubbing her stomach and saying: "We are hungry, all Mozambicans are hungry."
Police responded to the protests with gunfire. State television said police shot and killed seven people, including a girl of about six who was on her way home from school.
Alice Caisane, a Maputo hospital chief, said four of the victims died at her hospital and 16 were treated for gunshot injuries. Earlier, witnesses saw an ambulance remove the apparently lifeless body of a boy with a head wound.
In the aftermath of violence, a boy of about 12 could be seen lying motionless on a Maputo street in a pool of blood.
Police appealed for calm and said they had made an unspecified number of arrests.
Police had declared the marches illegal. Word had been passed around for days in the former Portuguese colony in southeast Africa that there would be demonstrations.
Mozambicans have seen the price of a loaf of bread rise by 25 percent in the past year. Fuel and water costs also have risen.
Thousands of people, mostly young men, turned out yesterday. They lined the streets of Bagamoyo, an impoverished neighborhood just north of downtown Maputo. As they moved into the city center, they burned tires and looted shops and warehouses. Protests were also reported in other areas of the capital.
Horatio Antonio, a 45-year-old unemployed man, said he saw police open fire without provocation. "People are angry because prices are going up: petrol, rice, water, electricity, everything," Antonio said.
A witness described a women running along the road to the airport after the riots, rubbing her stomach and saying: "We are hungry, all Mozambicans are hungry."
Police responded to the protests with gunfire. State television said police shot and killed seven people, including a girl of about six who was on her way home from school.
Alice Caisane, a Maputo hospital chief, said four of the victims died at her hospital and 16 were treated for gunshot injuries. Earlier, witnesses saw an ambulance remove the apparently lifeless body of a boy with a head wound.
In the aftermath of violence, a boy of about 12 could be seen lying motionless on a Maputo street in a pool of blood.
Police appealed for calm and said they had made an unspecified number of arrests.
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