Six Dead in Mozambique Bread Riots

Posted on Sep 3, 2010

AP / Nastasya Tay

The blanket-covered corpse of a child lies in a pool of blood in Maputo, Mozambique, after police opened fire on stone-throwing crowds protesting rising prices.

Soaring bread prices have sparked riots around Mozambique’s capital city of Maputo, but worse still is the fact that police killed at least six people and used live ammunition because—wait for it—they “ran out of rubber bullets.”

The riots came after a 30 percent rise in bread prices in one of the world’s poorest countries as the government has seemingly ignored the protesters’ demands and blamed them for destruction of property and civil disarray. —JCL

The Guardian:

Demonstrators [Friday] blocked roads with burning tyres and looted shops in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, as deadly riots sparked by soaring bread prices entered a second day.

[Thursday], police and hospital sources said at least six people were killed, including two children, as police opened fire on protesters in the worst riots to hit the country of 23 million people since 2008. Officially, police said four people were killed, including two children.

The rioting was prompted by a 30 percent rise in bread prices in one of the world’s poorest countries, which has never fully recovered from civil wars.

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