On Sunday, alleged members of the Mozambican paramilitary group Naparamas beheaded a neighbourhood secretary in the district of Murrumbala, in Zambezia province, and placed the victim’s head in a public square, a police source told Lusa.
The case took place at around 10:00 (08:00 in Lisbon) and the victim was a former combatant who worked as a secretary in one of the neighbourhoods in that district, Miguel Caetano, spokesman for the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in Zambézia, a province in central Mozambique, told Lusa.
‘They decapitated him and then left his head in a public square (…) The reasons are not known for sure,’ added Miguel Caetano.
According to the authorities, when the police operations team arrived at the scene they were met with gunfire in a confrontation that led to the death of two more people, presumably members of the paramilitary group.
‘The police were forced to react and at least two people were shot dead during the confrontation. We are still carrying out operations to capture others to ensure that this group is held accountable,’ he added.
The Naparamas are Mozambican paramilitaries who emerged in the 1980s during the civil war, combining traditional knowledge and mystical elements to fight their enemies, acting as a community.
Historically, the Naparamas classify themselves as a force that organised itself spontaneously for the self-defence of the population in the face of the war at the time and its members undergo initiation rites designed to give them alleged ‘supernatural protection’ which they believe makes them immune, even to bullets.
Lusa