The Attorney General of Mozambique has called for criminal accountability of those responsible for a series of road accidents that left 35 people dead in the country’s south on Monday.
“We must study the causes (…) and once we obtain the results of these inquiries, with the causes clarified, we must start taking seriously the accountability of those who may be at the origin of these accidents,” said Attorney General Américo Letela during a working visit to Gaza province.
Three separate accidents occurred on Monday, killing 35 people and injuring 13 others.
Letela urged for “concrete actions,” including the prosecution of those deemed responsible.
“Appealing speeches are no longer enough, because there is a legal framework. The question we raise is this: a vehicle that passed through several checkpoints outside the hours established by law should have had its circulation limited and at the posts the let these vehicles pass, and they eventually ended up in accidents,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Minister of the Interior suspended traffic officers who were on duty during one of the crashes, in which 23 people died in Maputo province.
On 15 April, the Mozambican government approved a Road Safety Action Plan, which sets out a series of measures aimed at reducing the number of road accidents. The plan includes strengthened inspections, legal reforms, interventions at high-risk locations, and community awareness campaigns.
