MAYOR OF NAMPULA ASSASSINATED

An unknown assailant assassinated the Mayor of the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, Mahamudo Amurane, on Wednesday night.The spokesperson for the Nampula Provincial Police Command, Zacarias Nacute, confirmed the shooting and  that Amurane had been shot three times in the abdomen. The murder occurred outside the Mayor’s home, in the Nampula neighbourhood of Namutequeliua.

“Yes, we confirm it”, said Nacute. “The Mayor was shot in front of his house, and the police are working to neutralise the criminals and bring them to justice”. Relatives and supporters rushed the fatally injured Amurane to Nampula Central Hospital, but the clinical director of the hspital, Bainabo Sahal, told reporters the mayor was dead on arrival.Eye-witnesses to the shooting told the Maputo daily paper “Noticias” they had seen a tall man outside a bar adjacent to Amurane’s house. He did not join the crowd drinking on the pavement, celebrating the public holiday (4 October is marked as the “day of peace and national econciliation”, since it is the anniversary of the peace agreement signed between the Mozambican goverment and the Renamo rebels in Rome in 1992).The eye-witnesses say this unidentified man, when Amurane came onto the patio of his house, shot the mayor three times at point-blank range, before walking away towards a nearby cemetery.

Earlier in the day, Amurane chaired the official ceremonies marking the Day of Peace in Nampula’s Square to the Mozambican Heroes. He deposited a symbolic wreath at the Square, and made a speech calling for definitive peace in the country.Amurane was elected Mayor in the 2013 municipal electons, on the ticket of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). However, he subsequently fell out with the MDM and bitterly criticised MDM leader Daviz Simango, the mayor of Beira.

Amurane’s relationship with his party became critical in February, when 11 staff of Nampula Municipal Council, including the Councillor for Finance, were accused of corruption. Amurane played a leading role in uncovering this municipal corruption and cooperating with the prosecutors.Several of the detained staff were said to be MDM members. Their relatives demanded their release, and accused Amurane of using municipal funds to buy a house in Portugal for his children (who are studying there). Amurane said he could prove he paid for the house out of his own pocket, and claimed that MDM members in Nampula were slandering him precisely because he would not tolerate acts of corruption.He told reporters the MDM wanted to silence him, and accused Simango himself of leading the campaign against him. He demanded an apology from Simango, which was not forthcoming.

Although he does not seem to have submitted a formal resignation from the MDM, Amurane stopped attending meetings of its Political Commission, of which he was a member. He also announced that he intended to run for a second term of office in the 2018 municipal elections – but not for the MDM. He said he would run for another, unnamed party. Since neither the ruling Frelimo Party, nor Renamo, are likely to accept him, there was speculation that Amurane intended to set up his own party.   Amurane’s sister, Adelaide, is a member of the central government, as a Minister in the office of President Filipe Nyusi.