A protest in the Angolan province of Kwanza Norte, over the deaths in recent months of 16 elderly rural women in circumstances that have yet to be clarified, resulted in several detentions, including UNITA MPs, the Angolan press reported on Monday.
According to Emissora Católica de Angola (catholic broadcaster), the rape and murder of 16 elderly peasant women in agricultural fields in the municipality of Cazengo, in Kwanza Norte, was the reason for Sunday’s demonstration, which was repressed by the local police and resulted in several people being arrested.
The deaths of the elderly women in those cases have been going on for a year and the citizens took to the streets in protest, demanding justice, but the march was halted by the local police, who fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, the broadcaster reported.
Several citizens were arrested following the police crackdown on the march, including two MPs from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition party) and a journalist covering the event, who were later released.
“There are demonstrators who are still missing at the moment and two people were hit by police gunfire,” UNITA MP Francisco Falua told the press.
UNITA’s parliamentary group, in a statement, condemned the arrest of MPs Francisco Falua and João Quipipa Dias, who it says were victims of police violence and illegal detention while exercising fundamental rights protected by the Constitution.
According to UNITA, in the last 12 months the province has recorded 16 murders and, so far, no crime has been solved, noting that the victims are all female and that there is a climate of “indignation, terror and fear” in Kwanza Norte.
The political party also urged the minister for the interior to “speed up” the investigations into the murder offences “repeatedly reported and never clarified” in the province.
The spokesman for the provincial command of the police in Kwanza Norte, Edgar Salvador, quoted by the newspaper O País, said that two alleged perpetrators had already been detained.
In a statement, the local police explained that they were called on Sunday to restore traffic on National Road 230, which had been blocked ‘by unknown people’, who ran riot when the officers tried to restore order.
The police said that six citizens were taken to the nearest police station and, after being duly identified, they realised the presence of two MPs who were ‘immediately’ released.
Lusa
