Mozambique sets December deadline to hand in illegal guns
President Chapo says nobody who surrenders a weapon under the amnesty will be questioned or detained. After the deadline, the police will come for them.
Maputo — Mozambique's president, Daniel Chapo, has warned that the authorities will seize illegally held firearms by force once a voluntary amnesty ends in December, the state news agency AIM reports.
Under the police-run programme, Operation Amnesty Two, anyone who hands in a weapon before the deadline will not be questioned, punished or detained, he said.
Mr Chapo was speaking in Manhiça district, in Maputo province, at the close of the 20th training course for the police special operations and reserve units.
A warning to the police too
The president used the occasion to tell the graduating officers that discipline, professionalism and respect for the law apply to them as much as to anyone. Specialist training, he said, does not put an officer above the law.
He said crime in Mozambique had become more complex, and listed terrorism, trafficking in people and drugs, kidnapping, organised crime and cybercrime. He called for closer cooperation between the police and the other branches of the defence and security forces, and for continued spending on police training.
Cabo Delgado
On the insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which began in 2017, Mr Chapo said the situation was better than it had been two years ago. He credited Mozambican forces and the troops sent by Rwanda and Tanzania.
This report is based on reporting by Agência de Informação de Moçambique, via AllAfrica.
