Mozambique’s military has denied claims by Amnesty International that it violated human rights of persons suspected of being militants operating in the gas-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado.
The rights group accused Mozambique’s government forces of torturing suspected members of an armed group known as al-shabab.
The Mozambican government forces were also accused being investigated for extrajudicial executions and discarding a large number of corpses into mass graves.
Amnesty International said its report is based on analysis of some videos and pictures from sources in Mozambique.
It indicated that the said actions flout fundamental principles of humanity.
“The abuses attributed to the group known as al-Shabab can never justify further violations by the security forces of Mozambique,” Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for East and Southern Africa, said.
“The government of Mozambique must now order a swift, transparent, and impartial investigation to bring all those responsible for such crimes to justice in fair trials,” Muchena said.
But Mozambique’s defence ministry spokesman, Omar Saranga, said Amnesty didn’t take into account the production of such materials by insurgents to discredit the military.
He also accused Amnesty International of “remaining silent to the barbarism that has plagued Cabo Delgado province since 2017”.
The armed group began its operations in northern Cabo Delgado province – bordering Tanzania in the north and the Indian Ocean to the east – in October 2017.
More than 1,000 civilians have been killed, mainly by the rebels, and the total number of fatalities exceeding 1,800.
Source: Africafeeds.com
