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Wiriyamu - The massacre in Tete Province
On the morning of 16 December 1972, Portuguese colonial troops gathered the inhabitants of Wiriaymu, including women and children, in the main square of the village and ordered them to clap their hands and sing to say goodbye to life. The soldiers then opened fire. Those who escaped the bullets were killed by grenades. Incited by the cry 'Kill them all', the soldiers carried out the killing to four neighbouring villages along the Zambezi River, where Mozambique's territory stretches into Zimbabwe (Rhodesia at the time of the events), Zambia and Malawi - a region designated by Catholic missionaries as 'the land forgotten by God'. By the end of the day, nearly 400 villagers had been killed, their bodies slowly consumed by flames on funeral pyres set by soldiers with the grass that covered the straws.