Mozambican Blogger Albino Sibia Killed While Livestreaming Protest

What changed

Mozambican blogger Albino Sibia, known as Mano Shottas, was fatally shot on 12 December 2024 while livestreaming a protest in Ressano Garcia. An investigation says open-source analysis and videos from the scene demonstrate law-enforcement involvement in his death, while examining alleged pollution linked to renewed chromite shipments through the town.

Why it matters

Shottas was not simply filming a protest. For 18 months, he had used Facebook to cover local news, demonstrations and water pollution for residents of Ressano Garcia. His final broadcast showed officers facing protesters as tear gas moved toward a house he said contained children. After being shot, he turned the camera toward himself and said: “I’ve been shot, and they keep shooting.”

The protest was tied to trucks carrying chromite ore through the border town. More than 1,000 trucks carrying chromium and other minerals reportedly pass through Ressano Garcia each day on their way to the Port of Maputo, less than 100km away. Residents say shipments have polluted the Komati River, making the dispute about both public order and the costs of a trade route that brings Mozambique economic benefit.

That trade gives the shooting a wider edge. The trucks are the visible part of a mineral flow in which roughly 1,000 dump trucks a day unload chromium, coal or magnetite at Maputo for export. In a country described as one of the world’s poorest, the route is valuable. For the people living beside it, the river, roads and protests are where that value is felt.

The investigation does not establish a final judicial finding or accountability outcome. The extent and persistence of contamination in the Komati River also remain under investigation.