Mozambique: Two kidnappings within 48 hours – AIM report

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Mozambique: Two kidnappings within 48 hours – AIM report

8:50 CAT | 15 Apr 2021

in file CoM

After a period of several months in which no kidnappings were reported in Mozambique, two people were abducted within the space of 48 hours in Maputo, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.

A businessman was kidnapped on Avenida Romao Fernandes Farinha in central Maputo on Sunday night, and a second person with business connections was seized at about 11.30 on Tuesday morning.

The police declined to name the victim “for operational reasons”. “Mediafax”, however, gives her name as Shabnam Issufo, the wife of Zahir Ibramugi, a businessman linked to the Plaza Hotel in the northern city of Nampula.

The kidnapping took place at gunpoint in front of the Portuguese consulate, in the heart of the capital. This is 100 metres from a police station, and very near other government and military installations.

There is usually heavy traffic in the area in late morning – but such was the kidnappers’ sense of impunity, that they hijacked their victim at the point of an AK-47 assault rifle, bundled her into their car and, according to eye-witnesses, drove off normally. They did not attempt to leave the scene of the crime at high speed.

Maputo city police spokesperson Leonel Muchina said that, as soon as they became aware of the kidnapping, they worked “at full speed” to clear up this case. Similar police statements have been made after every kidnapping in recent years, but the number of kidnappers brought to justice has been very few indeed.

Normally the kidnappers negotiate a ransom with the victim’s family. In this case, it is not yet known whether the kidnappers have demanded a ransom.

Source: AIM