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Assassins shot and killed a Catholic bishop, Osorio Citora Afonso, inside his home on Saturday, an event Mozambique’s episcopal body described as occurring under “mysterious circumstances.”
Maximino Amilcar, a spokesman for the criminal investigations bureau, told reporters outside the clergyman’s residence in Quelimane that a shooter struck 54-year-old Bishop Afonso in the chest, likely with a single bullet.
Amilcar qualified the killing as a murder by gunshot but noted that investigators cannot easily provide further details at this time.
Mozambique’s president, Daniel Chapo, issued a statement expressing his deep sadness over Afonso’s death, calling the assassination an irreparable loss for Mozambican society.
The Episcopal Conference of Mozambique stated that someone found Afonso’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances that authorities need to clarify.
The late bishop, born in Mozambique, previously served the church in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Italy. He later served as an auxiliary bishop in Maputo in 2023 before ascending to the rank of full bishop the following year.
In July 2025, Pope Leo XIV transferred Afonso to the diocese of Quelimane.
According to the country’s last census taken nearly a decade ago, Catholics make up approximately one-quarter of the population in this former Portuguese colony.
