Mozambique: State to crackdown after wave of recent kidnappings – minister

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Mozambique: State to crackdown after wave of recent kidnappings – minister

9:36 CAT | 19 Apr 2021

Photo: O País

The Mozambican Justice Minister on Monday defended a “strong repressive effect” to halt the wave of kidnappings in the country, expressing “great concern” over the upsurge of this type of crime.

Helena Kida said that the government was “very concerned” about the increase in this type of crime. “It is necessary to have more preventive measures and also to focus on the repressive effect to discourage these types of situations from continuing”.

“I have been following with some concern the kidnapping situation. We have to be vigilant and each of us has to do our part,” she added.

In less than a week three people have been kidnapped in Mozambique.

On Thursday night, an entertainment businessman was kidnapped in the city of Quelimane, in Zambezia province in central Mozambique, after another businessman, of Indian nationality, was kidnapped on the 11th, on one of the avenues of Maputo.

The same week, on 13, a 49-year-old Portuguese woman was kidnapped outside the Portuguese consulate in Maputo.

Since the beginning of 2020, the authorities have recorded more than 10 kidnappings, whose victims are businessmen or their relatives.

In October of that year, a group of businessmen in the city of Beira, Sofala province, central Mozambique, paralysed their activities for three days in protest against the wave of kidnappings in the country.

The CTA – Confederation of Business Associations of Mozambique, the country’s largest employers’ association, has also demanded on several occasions a severe fight against this type of crime and even the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, has called for further measures.

Source: Lusa