Mozambican employers condemn recent spate of businessman abductions

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Mozambican employers condemn recent spate of businessman abductions

4:29 CAT | 08 May 2020

Photo: O País

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) yesterday condemned the recent spate of businessman kidnappings in Mozambique, with six cases since the beginning of the year, urging vigorous action on the part of the authorities.

“CTA expresses its strong repudiation of the recent increase in the abduction of businessmen,” Onório Boane, director general of Beluluane Industrial Park, located on the outskirts of Maputo, told a press conference.

Although primarily a Covid-19 press briefing, the succession of kidnappings prompted a statement on behalf of the country’s largest employers’ organisation, with Boane warning that the lack of judicial clarification on the kidnappings would encourage this type of crime and further damage the business environment in the country.

“We call on the relevant parties to take energetic actions to stem this scourge, which will chase away potential entrepreneurs and investors,” he said.

Kidnappings, he continued, aggravate the country’s criminal situation. “Mozambique already has problems that need everyone’s focus, and we cannot allow this particular one to persist,” Boane added.

The CTA’s public condemnation follows the abduction of two businessmen in less than a week, bringing to six the total number of kidnappings this year.

On Tuesday, Yassin Anwar, a hotel and commerce entrepreneur, was kidnapped in the early evening, in the city of Chimoio, in central Manica province.

The crime involved several cars and involved a serious shootout, a police source told Lusa.

Five days earlier, on April 30, Rizwan Adatia, leader of a large commercial group and a philanthropist, was abducted during the day while driving on the highway in the Bairro do Fomento area on the outskirts of Maputo.

Adatia’s car was blocked at a traffic light by the kidnappers, who abducted him at gunpoint.

In March, the son of a businessman at Armazéns África was kidnapped by individuals so far unidentified in central Maputo.

In February, four unidentified individuals kidnapped Mozambican businessman Manish Cantilal from his own garage.

Also in February, another businessman, Ossufo Satar, 44, was kidnapped as he was leaving his commercial establishment in the city of Chimoio.

In addition to these, Indian businessman Faizel Patel was kidnapped in January in the city of Beira, in the centre of the country.

No further developments have been made known in these cases.

In addition to these six cases in 2020, others had already been registered in 2019.

In early April, Mozambican police detained five people suspected of involvement in previous kidnappings in Maputo and Inhambane provinces.

Of the five, three are being held for alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Shelton Lalgy, son of the owner of the Lalgy transport company, who was kidnapped in Maputo in November 2019 and released in February after a ransom was paid, the police announced at the time.

Source: Lusa