DEATH THREAT ISSUED

The mayor of the central Mozambican city of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, who is a prominent member of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), has claimed that on Tuesday a member of the city’s elected Municipal Assembly made a death threat against him.

A statement issued by the Quelimane Municipal Council said that an Assembly member from the ruling Frelimo Party, Nilsa Gomes (Photo), declared in the middle of the Assembly session “the mayor deserves a bullet in his head”.This threat, made publicly, follows claims by Araujo that earlier in the month he was threatened with death by a Frelimo veteran of the independence war. Araujo also told the independent television station STV that in recent days unknown people have been following his movements, a matter he has reported to the police.After the threat by Gomes, the chairperson of the Municipal Assembly interrupted the session to restore order in the room and decided to suspend Gomes, forbidding her from returning to the session.The head of the Frelimo group, Rijone Bombino, then withdrew all the Frelimo members from the meeting. The sole effect of this boycott was to ensure that the MDM could do what it liked in the Assembly without any opposition.The MDM has a majority of seats in the Quelimane Municipal Assembly, and can meet the necessary quorum on its own. Despite the Frelimo absence, the MDM members continued the Assembly’s work and approved the report from the Municipal Council on its activities in the first six months of 2016. Interviewed by STV, Bombino did not deny that Gomes had made the threat. Instead he said that Frelimo had been provoked by insults made by Araujo, who had allegedly blamed Frelimo for a string of unsolved murders.