Mozambique: Sheik captured by the FDS in Macomia and taken to unknown location – Carta

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Mozambique: Sheik captured by the FDS in Macomia and taken to unknown location – Carta

2:40 CAT | 24 Jan 2020

File photo: Lusa

Relatives of Sheik Kada Sualeh – an influential sheik born in Messano and living in Runho village, Mucojo administrative post, in Macomia district, Cabo Delgado – are desperate to know the whereabouts of their relative, who was driven off in a Mahindra vehicle by Defence and Security Force (FDS) personnel last Saturday, Carta de Moçambique reports.

The relatives do not even know the reasons why the Sheikh was taken by members of the Rapid Intervention Unit from the veranda of a house in the village Runho, in Mucojo. “We don’t know how or where our father is,” Kada Sualeh’s children scream desperately.

The sheik had just left the mosque, at about 3:00 p.m., when the police vehicle made its appearance. At the time, the Sheik was in the company of the village secretary, with whom he was talking, and who tried to get a clarification from the FDS about what was going on, but the village secretary was simply chased away.

The biggest fear of Sheik Sualeh’s family members is that he will never return home, as has happened to several other people taken by the authorities in more or less similar circumstances.

Some citizens claim that Sheik Sualeh – who once went to Mecca on pilgrimage with the support of a local businessperson – is accused of being one of the recruiters of young people for insurgency.

This hypothesis is however readily denied by several sources contacted by ‘Carta’, who consider Sheik Sualeh a person of integrity, who has repeatedly led prayers in state ceremonies in Mucojo.

To these sources, to claim that the cleric has any kind of connection with the insurgents is nonsensical. In fact, they say he was among the most vociferous critics of these criminal groups when they arrived in the villages of Mucojo administrative post.

This is not the first time that Mozambique’s Defence and Security Forces have abducted civilians in conflict-zone districts without any warrant from a competent authority.

Source: Lusa