On December 12, 2024, a police officer in the Mozambican border town of Ressano Garcia shot blogger Albino Sibia twice in the back while he was broadcasting live on his Facebook page, according to his wife Vânia Tembe, who spoke to CPJ, news reports, and the human rights group Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Mozambique.
Sibia, 30, who went by the nickname Mano Shottas, was filming police tear-gassing homes to break up a protest, while commenting “There are children in that house.” In the live broadcast, which has been shared widely online, gunshots are heard and then Sibia films himself lying on the ground saying, “They’ve shot me… I’m dying.”
Protester Josué Chilenge told CPJ that he was standing about 2 meters from Sibia when an officer told the blogger to stop filming. Sibia pretended to stop but kept recording.
“When the officer realized Shottas continued to film, he shot him once and a second time when he had already fallen to the ground, a bit after, when we were trying to get to him,” Chilenge told CPJ.
The protest was over trucks seen transporting chromium, which had been halted two months earlier following complaints from locals that it was contaminating their water, André Mulungo, secretary general of CDD Mozambique told CPJ.
Sibia received first aid at a local clinic but died about four hours later on the way to hospital in Moamba town, about 48 kilometers east, his sister-in-law Arsélia Ardichir, who was with him, told CPJ.
Sibia, who was also a musician, ran two Facebook pages where he reported on local problems like crime and poor infrastructure, according to CPJ’s review. Mano Shottas had over 81,000 followers while Ressano Garcia Border Gate had about 21,000 followers.
Following October’s disputed re-election of the ruling Frelimo party, Sibia covered and participated in local protests. Nationwide, security personnel have been accused of using excessive force, with about 300 people killed by January 2025.
On December 30, CDD filed a civil complaint at Maputo High Court against the state of Mozambique for Sibia’s killing.
During Sibia’s funeral on December 14, the police went into the cemetery and the neighborhood of Shottas’ family and opened fire, according to the late journalist’s wife Vânia Tembe and media reports, which said that two people were shot dead in the chaos.
Journalist Pedro Júnior, or Strip Pedro, told CPJ that he was reporting for the local online channel SPMTV when police shot him in the hand, and then shot dead a young man who was trying to help him walk to safety.
CPJ’s requests for comment via phone and message app to Maputo police spokesperson Leonel Muchina and national police general commandant Bernardino Rafael did not receive any replies.