Maputo — Two people were shot dead in clashes between the police and rioters on Saturday, in the southern province of Inhambane, according to a report on Radio Mozambique.
The riot broke out at Mapinhane, in Vilankulo district, when a crowd demanded that the police hand over a man suspected of involvement in kidnapping. Since the crowd clearly intended to lynch the suspect, the police refused to comply with its demand.
The police opened fire to disperse the crowd. Two of the protesters died in the clash, and four others were injured. Among the injured are a child, hit by a stray bullet, presumably fired by the police, and a police officer hit by an object thrown from within the crowd. They were treated for their injuries at the Vilankulo Rural Hospital.
The protestors threw up barricades along the stretch of the country's main north-south highway (EN1) which runs through Mapinhane. According to the head of the Mapinhane administrative post, Luis Vuilankulo, by the evening the barricades had been removed and traffic was flowing normally along the road. Shops, which had closed during the rioting, re-opened.
100 CUBIC METRES OF ILLEGALLY LOGGED TIMBER SEIZED
Maputo, 8 Jan (AIM) - Mozambique's National Environmental Quality Control Agency (AQUA) has ordered the seizure of 100 cubic metres of black chacate wood, illegally logged in the central province of Sofala.
The timber was being transported in four trucks, belonging to a forestry operator in the neighbouring province of Manica, who had no licence to operate in Sofala.
"This operator is authorized to work in Manica province, but he crossed the provincial boundary", the AQUA delegate in Sofala, Morgado Mussengue, explained to reporters. "Instead of working in Tambara district (in Manica), he was logging in Chemba (Sofala)".
The offence can incur a fine of over 900,000 meticais (about 14,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate). The case will now go to court, said Mussengue, and, if the operator does not pay the fine within 15 days, the seized timber should be sold at public auction.
The trucks have been seized. Three are under police guard, while the fourth is still in Chemba, where its wheels became stuck in mud.
