Mozambique: Businessman’s daughter kidnapped in Beira – AIM report | Watch

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Mozambique: Businessman’s daughter kidnapped in Beira – AIM report | Watch

4:47 CAT | 20 May 2022

The 19-year-old daughter of a Mozambican businessman was kidnapped on Thursday morning in the central port city of Beira.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was close to the Mozambican Catholic University (UCM), in Ponta Gea neighbourhood, when the kidnapping occurred, in the company of a friend who witnessed the whole incident.

“The girls were coming from the UCM and as they were passing by there came a grey Toyota Ractis car drew up slowly next to them”, said a witness, quoted by Radio Mozambique, adding that “the kidnapping was very fast and “didn’t take more than two minutes.”

Other witnesses explained that the kidnappers “were inside a grey car. They fired a few shots in the air as a way to convince the victim to surrender.”

The police say that they are working to track down the kidnappers and rescue the victim. The main people targeted by the wave of kidnappings in Mozambican cities have been businesspeople of Asian origin.

ALSO READ: Mozambique: 18-year-old student kidnaped this morning in Ponta Gea, Beira

Due to the high number of kidnappings, President, Filipe Nyusi, recently announced the creation of an anti-kidnapping unit to stop these crimes.

During her annual report on the State of Justice, delivered to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, in April, Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili denounced police complicity in kidnapping.

She said that some of those who should be on the front line combatting the kidnappers are in league with them. “The involvement of some members of the police, lawyers, magistrates and other figures in the judiciary creates fragilities in investigating these cases”, said Buchili, “and endangers the safety of those public servants who are committed to fighting against crime”.

A few days later, two policemen and an agent of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) were arrested and charged with involvement in the kidnapping of businessman Bharat Kumar in Maputo on 12 February.