Mozambique: Police are working to rescue businessman kidnapped in Maputo

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Mozambique: Police are working to rescue businessman kidnapped in Maputo

1:37 CAT | 04 Feb 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: AIM Moçambique]

Mozambican police have announced that they are working to locate and rescue a businessman of Asian descent kidnapped on Saturday in the city centre of Maputo.

“The Police of the Republic of Mozambique [PRM] are working to locate and rescue the victim, and we would like to appeal to any citizen who has any information to collaborate in clarifying this case,” PRM spokesperson Marta Pereira told Lusa on Sunday (02-02).

The kidnapping of the 52-year-old citizen occurred at around 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at the entrance to the Bazar Central, a popular crockery store on Avenida Karl Marx in the centre of Maputo.

The Mozambican police have clarified that the victim is not the owner of the Bazar Central, as had been reported to the media by different sources on the ground on Saturday, but rather a relative of his.

According to the Mozambican authorities, people near the kidnapping site threw stones at the kidnappers’ vehicle in an attempt to stop the abduction. These hit the left side window of their car.

“They had at least two weapons of the AK47 type and fired at least two shots,” an employee of a neighbouring commercial establishment who witnessed the incident told Lusa on Saturday.

Mozambique has endured a wave of kidnappings since 2011. The victims are mainly businesspeople and their families, often of Asian descent, a group that dominates commerce in the urban centres of the country’s provincial capitals.

Around 150 businesspeople have been kidnapped in Mozambique in the last 12 years and many have left the country out of fear of falling victim, according to the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), which argues that it is time for the government to say “enough”.

Most kidnappings committed in Mozambique are planned outside the country, mainly in South Africa, former attorney general Beatriz Buchili told parliament in April, 2024.

By March 2024, the Mozambican police had registered a total of 185 cases of kidnapping, and at least 288 people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in abductions since 2011, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of the Interior.

Source: Lusa