The United Nations Office in Angola recently reacted to the request by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to devote special attention to the case of Angolan citizen Gerson Emanuel Quintas, "Man Gena", and his family in the custody of Mozambican authorities.

The letter dated April 12, 2022, and signed by the UN Angola Resident Coordinator, Zahira Virani, states that the organization has submitted UNITA's request to the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

UN Angola also said that UNITA's missive - and if the political party so wishes - could be referred to the Special Procedures system of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This Council "is made up of independent experts, who deal with individual cases of possible human rights violations," explains UN Angola, referring the contact to the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for this procedure.

Man Gena and his family arrived in Mozambique clandestinely in February this year, claiming they were being persecuted in Angola by drug traffickers involving high-ranking police officers and Angolan politicians.

The Angolan citizen is a former member of a group of martial arts practitioners created more than 20 years ago. The group has often been accused of being linked to crime and drug trafficking. He allegedly revealed links between politicians and drug traffickers.

A UNITA delegation that was in Mozambique said that Man Gena feared death by poisoning and that his state of health was weak and in need of medical attention. However, after several attempts, the parliamentary group was unable to speak to Man Gena.

On April 5, Man Gena's wife gave birth to a baby girl at Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), but the baby died two days later, on April 7, the date on which Mozambican Women's Day is celebrated.

In a video circulated on social media, his wife accused HCM - Mozambique's largest hospital - of murdering her daughter.

"... they say that my baby had heart attacks, had two cardiac arrests, they had to revive her, she bled from the mouth, they revived her the first time, they revived her the second time, and the baby died. So I said 'no, you waited for me to come out to you to kill my baby'," said Clemência Suzete Vume.

The HCM claimed that the patient was admitted to hospital "with an obstetric complication, affecting a still premature pregnancy, and this complication is treated all over the world with childbirth, as it endangered the health of the mother as well as that of the fetus, so everything was done following clinical protocols".