Mozambique: Kidnappings continue to cause concern – president

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Mozambique: Kidnappings continue to cause concern – president

7:58 CAT | 21 Dec 2023

Photo: O País

The President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, acknowledged yesterday, in parliament, that despite improvements in the fight against crime, there remains concern about kidnapping crimes that plague the country.

“Despite these advances, cases of kidnapping continue to concern us, even with a reduction in six, compared to 12 cases registered in the same period of 2022”, said the head of state, in his usual annual speech on the state of the nation, at the Assembly of the Republic, in Maputo.

“Of these cases, four linked to the crime of kidnapping were clarified, 31 individuals were arrested, the same ones involved in previous kidnappings, and a principal was also arrested in the Republic of South Africa, as part of judicial cooperation between the authorities of the two countries” , added Nyusi.

For a few weeks now, the city of Maputo has been experiencing a new wave of kidnappings, especially of businesspeople, with two Portuguese-Mozambicans being targeted in just over a month and suspicions of the involvement of agents linked to the police investigation in this type of crime.

The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) previously confirmed to Lusa that the Consulate General of Maputo was monitoring the attempted kidnapping of a Portuguese-Mozambican citizen, which took place on November 17, the second case in a month.

“The Consulate General in Maputo is monitoring the situation of the attempted kidnapping of a Portuguese-Mozambican citizen. The Mozambican authorities took charge of the incident”, said an official MNE source, in response to a question from Lusa.

A Portuguese-Mozambican businessman was shot by unknown assailants who tried to kidnap him, in the center of the city of Maputo, a crime that was thwarted thanks to the intervention of the population.

“Four men armed with a pistol and an AKM gun tried to kidnap a trader in the early evening of Monday [November 27], in the city of Maputo, and due to the victim’s resistance and the intervention of members of the public, he ended up shot in the leg “, said Leonel Muchina, police spokesman in Mozambique’s capital.

Source: Lusa