MOZAMBIQUE: Children killed in election violence – HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that Mozambican security forces killed at least 10 children and injured dozens more in post-election violence. The southern African nation has been rocked by unrest since an October 9 vote won by the ruling Frelimo party in power since independence but contested by the opposition. Thousands of people have […]

MOZAMBIQUE: Children killed in election violence – HRW

mozambique

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that Mozambican security forces killed at least 10 children and injured dozens more in post-election violence.

The southern African nation has been rocked by unrest since an October 9 vote won by the ruling Frelimo party in power since independence but contested by the opposition.

Thousands of people have demonstrated across the country in recent weeks in protests brutally suppressed by the police.

One 13-year-old girl was “caught in a crowd of people fleeing tear gas and gunfire… One of the bullets hit her in the neck, and she instantly fell to the ground and died,” HRW said in a statement.

The rights group said it had documented “nine additional cases of children killed and at least 36 other children injured by gunfire during the protests.”

The authorities have not responded to HRW’s claims.