Mozambique: Trader kidnapped by armed men in Maputo on Saturday – Watch

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Mozambique: Trader kidnapped by armed men in Maputo on Saturday – Watch

11:31 CAT | 13 Jan 2025

Screen grab: Anti-Raptos Beira

A Mozambican trader was kidnapped in central Maputo by four armed men early on Saturday afternoon, a source from the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) confirmed to Lusa, in the first publicly known abduction this year.

According to the PRM spokesperson in the city of Maputo, Leonel Muchina, the kidnapping took place on Avenida Alberto Luthuli at around 2:00 p.m., with the 64-year-old trader being approached while walking on the sidewalk and dragged into a vehicle by the kidnappers.

“We have confirmed the kidnapping. A Mozambican trader of Asian origin was intercepted by four individuals, at least two of whom were carrying firearms (…) No shots were fired, the weapons were displayed as a form of intimidation,” Muchina said.

The PRM and the Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) are working on this case based on video surveillance images from the area, Muchina added.

The last previously publicly known case occurred on November 25, when a 39-year-old businessman of Pakistani origin was kidnapped in the city of Matola, Maputo province, southern Mozambique, according to information provided to Lusa at the time by SERNIC.

On November 22, SERNIC announced the arrest of a man suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of two other businessmen in Maputo, one of whom was a Portuguese national, who were rescued on the 13th of the same month.

The man, arrested in the city of Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo, is suspected of having rented the residence used as a hideout for the businessmen, and which has been used in other kidnapping cases since 2022.

Around 150 business people have been kidnapped in Mozambique in the last 12 years and a hundred have left the country out of fear, according to figures released in July by the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), which argues that it is time for the government to say “enough”.

The Mozambican police have registered, up to March 2024, a total of 185 cases of kidnapping and at least 288 people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in this type of crime since 2011, the Minister of the Interior, Pascoal Ronda, has previously announced.

Source: Lusa