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Demonstrators protest killing of Congolese refugee in Brazil

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Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

People rip a sign off a kiosk during a protest against the violent death of a Congolese immigrant earlier this week over an alleged pay dispute, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022. The death of 24-year-old Mose Mugenyi Kabagambe has sent shockwaves across Brazil after the assailants were caught on security camera footage attacking the young man, and over the course of 13 minutes holding him down and beating him with a rod and continuing to do so even after he lost consciousness. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

RIO DE JANEIRO ā€“ Demonstrators gathered on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other Brazilian cities to protest the killing of a 24-year-old Congolese refugee who was beaten to death on Jan. 24, and which sparked outrage and revulsion across the nation.

In Rio, they gathered outside the same beach kiosk where MoĆÆse Mugenyi Kabagambe had recently been working in Barra da Tijuca, a neighborhood known for its upmarket condominiums and shopping malls.

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The two lanes in front of the kiosk were covered with banners featuring images and photos of MoĆÆse. Some of the signs were attached to the sound truck. One of them, held by more than 10 people, beside an image of the dead young manā€™s face, said ā€œJustice for MoĆÆse. Black lives matter! Stop killing us!ā€

ā€œMoĆÆse was beaten for 15 minutes, on a busy beach, where people pass by all the time, and at no time did anyone call the police and try to separate them,ā€ said attorney Rodrigo Mondengo, of Brazilā€™s Bar Association in Rio. ā€œWe have no doubt that if it were a white person there being beaten, someone would go to that personā€™s rescue.ā€

Kabagambe's assailants were caught on security camera footage the police have released to the media. It shows three men violently attacking the young man, and over the course of 13 minutes holding him down and beating him with a rod ā€” and continuing to do so even after he loses consciousness. They are later seen attempting chest compressions, then rolling his body over.

Police are still investigating the circumstances that prompted Kabagambeā€™s killing. Many felt no need to await official findings in a city where murder often goes unpunished; they asserted Kabagambeā€™s death was evidence of racism, xenophobia and impunity.

On Saturday in Rio, a group of protesters tore down the sign of the kiosk where MoĆÆse was killed, but the organizers of the protest called for peace.

Human Rights Watch denounced a ā€œdeplorableā€ crime in a Feb. 1 statement. ā€œCOWARDICE. SAVAGERY. BARBARITY,ā€ blared the front page of local newspaper Extraā€™s Feb. 2 front page, along with images of the assault.

Kabagambe moved to Brazil in 2011 from his native Bunia, capital of Congoā€™s northeastern Ituri province, in 2011, his cousin Yannick Kamanda confirmed to AP. The countryā€™s east has been mired in conflict for decades, and local media reports said the family had fled fighting between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups.

ā€œMoĆÆseā€™s mother fled with her children from Congo to Brazil fearing they would die the same way as her mother, or disappear the same way as MoĆÆseā€™s father,ā€ said Rio state lawmaker Dani Monteiro, who heads the state legislature's human rights commission and met with the family.

More than 2,500 Congolese people have been recognized as refugees in Latin Americaā€™s largest nation since 2000, according to the justice ministry, which oversees immigration.

ā€œMy son grew up here, studied here. All his friends are Brazilians,ā€ his mother told television network Globo at his burial on Jan. 30. ā€œI want justice.ā€

In recent years, Brazil also has become an increasingly popular arrival point for Congolese and Cameroonians seeking to make the overland trek to the U.S. border.

Congolese Foreign Affairs Minister Christophe Lutundula summoned the Brazilian ambassador on Wednesday in an effort to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the young man's killing.

Rio state's civil police force has arrested three men in connection with the killing. Following the release of initial information, the police's homicide department placed the investigation under seal.

Family members say Kabagambe entered into an argument that night after complaining about two days of pay he was owed.

Police have questioned the kiosk's owner, but not named him as a suspect, police said. City Hall suspended the kiosk's permission to operate.

Also on Saturday, Rioā€™s City Hall announced that it will grant the management of the TropicĆ”lia kiosk to MoĆÆseā€™s family. The note sent to the press highlighted that the site on the Barra beachfront will be transformed into a memorial in honor of the young man and a center of reference to African culture.

Acclaimed singers, actors, soccer stars and politicians shared outrage and disgust on social media throughout the week, joining their voices with those of the Kabagambe family to demand that the guilty be punished.

ā€œThis is not the Rio that I learned to love and that welcomed me with open arms!!!" star soccer striker Gabriel Barbosa, known as Gabigol, said on Twitter on Feb. 1. "We want justice.ā€

The young man's death also mobilized anti-racism movements, with many denouncing an all-too-common scenario of the killing of a Black man. Protests were also held in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo, and in Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Salvador, the capital BrasĆ­lia and at least seven other Brazilian cities.

In Sao Paulo, hundreds of people gathered on Paulista Avenue, a major road. Banners and posters calling for justice were attached to the railings that separate its lanes.

In addition to MoĆÆses, names of other Black people who were killed were called into the microphone. With their hands up, people shouted ā€œJustice!ā€ after each of them.

Mamanu, Kabagambeā€™s uncle, told radio station Gaucha that his nephew was a sweet kid who loved soccer and earned good grades in school, ā€œalways finishing first or second in his class.ā€

Friends and family described him at his burial as hardworking, a trait that had earned him the nickname ā€œsoldier.ā€

Yannick Kamanda, 33, told the AP in Rio that his cousin MoĆÆse was ā€œa loving, playful, humble, educated, and respectful boyā€ and that, for the family, only ā€œhappy memoriesā€ will remain.

___ Associated Press writers Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo and DƩbora Ɓlvares in Brasilia contributed.


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