Mozambique: Migration officials detained suspected of aiding entry of foreigners

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Mozambique: Migration officials detained suspected of aiding entry of foreigners

7:46 CAT | 24 Jun 2022

In file CoM

Five employees of Mozambique’s migration services [SENAMI]were detained on suspicion of facilitating the entry of foreigners seeking to recruit members for the drug trafficking which finances terrorists, the Mozambican police announced on Friday.

The officials were arrested as a result of an arrest warrant issued by the Sofala Province judicial court, as part of ongoing proceedings following the detention on Tuesday of five foreigners who were seeking to recruit members for the drug trafficking which finance terrorists, the spokesman for Mozambique’s national criminal investigation service (SERNIC) in Sofala, Alfeu Sitoe, told reporters in Beira.

“There are strong indications of their involvement in the case of the foreigners arrested on Tuesday,” the SERNIC spokesman said, without giving further details.

On Tuesday, Mozambican police arrested four men and a woman, all foreigners, at a residence in the city of Beira on suspicion of recruiting members for drug trafficking, which finances terrorists in the country.

Passports and other identity documents from Kenya and Somalia were seized in the operation, but they appeared to be forgeries, according to SERNIC.

The action was taken based on information that the group of foreign nationals were engaged in committing various crimes such as drug trafficking, illegal immigration and human trafficking.

According to the SERNIC spokesman, one of the members “has been recruiting Kenyan nationals to integrate them into the insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado,” more than 1,000 kilometres away.

READ: Alleged recruiters for terrorist groups in Cabo Delgado arrested in Beira – Notícias

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas but has been terrorised since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

There are 784,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with Rwandan support later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has allowed areas where there was a rebel presence to recover, but their flight has provoked new attacks in other districts used as passage or temporary refuge.

Source: Lusa