Yesterday, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) submitted a criminal complaint to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) against the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs for the deaths of 33 inmates on December 25, 2024, during the escape from the Central Prison and Machava Maximum Security Prison (B.O).

As he left the PGR, the Director General of the CDD, Adriano Nuvunga, accused the Mozambican state of having "indiscriminately" murdered 33 inmates, using police force. Thirty people were murdered on the Central Prison side and another three on the B.O. side.

"They say [the deaths occurred] in self-defense," but for Nuvunga, the Mozambican state must have the means to prevent escapes without slaughtering the inmate population.

"That's why this massacre must be held accountable, and here at the prosecutor's office we've come to start the process. But the truth is that massacres of this nature deserve to be dealt with at an international level, because they are crimes against humanity," he said.

On the other hand, he said that an investigation is underway with some families into the deaths of loved ones, since people who voluntarily returned to prison on the night of December 25, 2024, were murdered.

The work also aims to identify the victims, "many of whom were thrown into the Central Hospital morgue".

"There are indications, as has been reported, that videos have been circulated showing that some of those [inmates] who were recovered and even some who returned to jail voluntarily were barbarously murdered, tortured to death by the police, in the prison establishment, barracks of the Rapid Intervention Unit, Esquadras," he said.

The investigation work extends to the provinces of Nampula and Zambézia, where "similar massacres perpetrated by the police, including SERNIC, have taken place".