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Police arrested for prison deaths

[Senegal] HIV-positive women in Senegal have many problems to talk publicly about the virus with families and men shutting them up at home. Pierre Holtz/IRIN
Selon Enda-Santé, 80 pour cent des professionnelles du sexe à Dakar travaillent dans la clandestinité.
    DAKAR

    Most of the dead in the prison in the town of Montepuez were supporters of the opposition RENAMO party rounded up by police after riots last month in which over 40 people had died. Radio Mozambique said the policemen had been taken to the coastal city of Pemba, the capital of northeastern Cabo Delgado province, where the clashes occurred.

    The report did not say what charges the group faced. A preliminary report by government doctors concluded that the inmates probably died of asphyxiation after being squeezed into a single prison cell. Radio Mozambique reported last Saturday that two senior police officials in Cabo Delgado had been suspended and a government commission would investigate the incident which took placed on 21 November.

    RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama has blamed President Joaquim Chissano’s ruling FRELIMO party for orchestrating the deaths, but Frelimo has denied the allegation. Dhlakama’s party has refused to recognise Chissano’s government following last December’s elections which they accuse Frelimo of rigging.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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