Mozambique: 205 kidnappings recorded since 2011, with 302 arrested – Minister

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Mozambique: 205 kidnappings recorded since 2011, with 302 arrested – Minister

1:18 CAT | 09 Apr 2025

Screen grab: TVM

The Mozambican police recorded at least 205 kidnappings between 2011 and March of this year, with 302 people arrested, the government said today, admitting that there remain “challenges” to curbing the phenomenon.

According to data presented by Mozambique’s Minister of the Interior, Paulo Chachine, in parliament, where the government will provide information to MPs this Wednesday and Thursday, 2013 was the peak year for kidnappings, with 37 cases registered, against 20 in 2014, 17 in 2015, 16 in 2020, and 15 cases in both 2016 and 2024.

In connection with the cases, the Mozambican police have arrested at least 302 people, having deactivated several places used for captivity and seized firearms as well as movable and immovable assets.

“The provinces most affected by this type of crime were the city of Maputo with 133 cases, followed by the provinces of Maputo and Sofala with 48 and 09 cases, respectively,” Chachine said.

The minister added that 19 completed kidnapping crimes were recorded between January 2024 and March of this year alone, of which 15 were solved with the arrest of 33 people and the seizure of at least 12 firearms, 12 vehicles, 28 mobile phones, two computers and four houses used as hiding places.

“Despite the operational results achieved, challenges remain for the rapid clarification of the cases with a view to consolidating the feeling of security in Mozambican society and ensuring a favourable environment for national and foreign investment,” the minister acknowledged.

Mozambique has been hit by a wave of kidnappings since 2011, with the victims being mainly businesspeople and their families, many of Asian descent, a group that dominates commerce in the urban centres of the country’s provincial capitals.

Around 150 businesspeople had been kidnapped in Mozambique in the last 12 years, and 100 had left the country out of fear, according to the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), which argued in July 2024 that it was time for the government to take action.

The majority of kidnappings committed in Mozambique are planned outside the country, especially in South Africa, the then Attorney General of the Republic, Beatriz Buchili, said in parliament in April 2024.

The Mozambican police, the minister also said, observe the “limits of necessity, reasonableness, proportionality and appropriateness” in the face of alleged police violence against civilians, especially during post-election protests, pointing out that in confirmed cases “legal mechanisms” are triggered for criminal accountability.

Paulo Chachine reported that since January 2024, at least 514 disciplinary proceedings have been instituted against members of the police force, culminating in the expulsion of at least 73 for crimes of fraud, extortion, theft, bodily harm, abuse of office and misappropriation of state assets.

Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior warned that “some episodes of police violence (…) fall within the scope of mass control actions in situations of serious disruption of public order, of contempt for the police authorities, and no other form of treatment is expected other than intervention to prevent greater harm”.

Source: Lusa