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Mozambique: Another kidnapping in central Maputo – updated with video | AIM report
6:24 CAT | 06 Aug 2024
Image via Anti-Raptos Beira
Unidentified criminals on Monday morning kidnapped the 24 year old son of a businessman of Asian origin in broad daylight, in central Maputo.
The father is one of the owners of the United Centre, a Maputo shop that sell electrical appliances. It is located on 24 July Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in the centre of the city.
The son, whose name has not yet been released, was seized at about 08.40, as he was leaving the family home on Francisco Orlando Magumbwe Avenue, in the up-market Maputo neighbourhood of Polana Cimento, near the Terminus Hotel.
According to eyewitnesses, cited by the independent television station STV, the victim tried to escape in a taxi, but the kidnappers, one of whom was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, dragged him out and forced him into their own car.
Shockingly, a police agent nearby said he could do nothing because he had to go and seek back-up, implying that he had no radio contact with police headquarters. By the time a police vehicle did arrive, the kidnappers had speed off with their victim.
The crime took place on a busy street in the heart of the capital, and the criminals drove away as if they knew they would not be stopped.
According to the spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), Hilário Lole, “The Police are working in order to bring more details about this kidnapping. As soon as possible, we will come to the public with more information about this case”.
Lole also called on Mozambican landlords to be cautious when they rent out their houses, because there are criminals who use rented houses as private prisons where kidnapped businesspeople are held.
“The house owners must be attentive, since some tenants use rented houses for crime. When they do it, the house owners also become implicated and they may lose their properties”, he said.
This kidnapping comes after two residences that were used to hold victims, in Matola city, and the adjacent municipality of Matola-Rio were seized by the Police, where two apparently low level members of the kidnap gangs were also arrested.
Recently, the chairperson of the Mozambican Muhammadan Community, Salim Omar, said that the business people of Asian origin no longer trust the police since they continue to be threatened by their tormentors.
He also said that over 100 business people and their families have left the country due to the kidnappings that have struck Mozambican cities since 2011.
Omar believes that the kidnappers have inside information about the cases.
“The victims’ families say that when they are called by the police or the prosecutor’s office to give information, they receive phone calls from people telling them to be careful or they will die. The victims no longer trust the police”, he said.
According to the Strategic Analysis Report (RAE), published by the Mozambican Financial Intelligence Office (GIFiM), which is a specialist unit in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the wave of kidnappings in the country have generated, since 2014, over 33 million dollars in money laundering.
There have now been three kidnappings in central Maputo in less than a month. They look like a deliberate response to the July call on the police by President Filipe Nyusi to introduce new strategies to arrest the masterminds of the kidnap gangs.
Speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Ministry of the Interior, Nyusi was clearly irritated that to date not a single kingpin in the kidnap gangs has been arrested and presented to the public.
“Kidnapping is still a challenge for our National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic)”, said Nyusi. “Bring us at least one of those who is ordering the kidnappings!”.
It seems that the kingpins were listening, and the spate of recent kidnappings is their response, showing that they enjoy impunity.
Source: AIM
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