Mozambique: Daughter of restaurant owner kidnapped in latest in series of cases

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Mozambique: Daughter of restaurant owner kidnapped in latest in series of cases

8:29 CAT | 11 Nov 2020

File photo: Record TV Europe

A group of unidentified men on Monday kidnapped the daughter of the owner of a restaurant in the city of Matola, in Maputo province, the provincial director of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) told Lusa.

The victim, 26, was abducted at around 7 a.m. local time on the street where she lives in Matola city, just moments after leaving home, the provincial director, Benjamina Chaves, said.

“We immediately sent a police unit to the scene and are continuing investigations into the location of the victim and the kidnappers,” Chaves said. “It is a worrying situation and, at least where Maputo province goes, it is the first time that the victim has been a young woman.”

The Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities Berta Nunes is following the case of Jessica Pequeno.

“There has been no news since yesterday. The family is very concerned but with the hope of seeing it again ”, said Berta Nunes on Tuesday. “We are following the case, together with the Portuguese Embassy in Maputo and the Consulate. Yesterday they went to talk to the young woman’s family, to see what needs they had and were also in contact with the local authorities that are investigating the abduction ”.

The restaurant has been closed since the day Jessica Pequeno was kidnapped.

Since the beginning of 2020, the authorities in Mozambique have recorded a total of 10 kidnappings of businessmen or their relatives.

In July, the president of the Confederation of Mozambique’s Economic Associations (CTA), Agostinho Vuma, was shot and wounded as he left his office in downtown Maputo, in a case that has yet to be solved.

In October, a group of entrepreneurs in the city of Beira, in Sofala province, in central Mozambique, stopped activities for three days in protest against the wave of kidnappings in the country.

“This is a demonstration by the indignant, but at the same time it is a collective call for the Mozambican state, once and for all, to present concrete, consistent and palpable results in the fight against this evil,” declared businessman Zeyn Badati, speaking on behalf of the group, at a news conference called at the time in Beira.

Source: Lusa / Plataforma Media /Diário de Noticias