Nampula: Family of kidnapped, dismembered woman demand explanation

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Nampula: Family of kidnapped, dismembered woman demand explanation

4:35 CAT | 31 Jul 2019

Maurício Carlitos: We, her family, still don't know how the problem ended.

On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, marked yesterday around the globe, family members of a woman abducted in Mozambique’s Nampula province are calling for more rigor and transparency in the investigations.

Mauricio Carlitos’ younger sister was kidnapped in Malema district, Nampula province, in September 2015.

“She was sleeping, and her husband was absent. The criminals showed up around midnight. They tied her up and then, out in the forest, dismembered her and took her organs,” Carlitos relates.

Police managed to catch the supposed trafficker, who was tried and sentenced to prison, according to Maurício Carlitos, only to be released a few months later.

“We, who are family, still don’t know how that problem ended,” he says. “The case has been tried, but we do not know how it went … A person who does this kind of thing must serve a sentence of at least 15 years in prison, but that citizen did not. If I’m not mistaken, he served only two months in prison.”

As far as Maurício is concerned, the process lacked transparency, and he wants to see justice done.

Mosambik Protest gegen Organhandel — *Demonstration in Nampula, on July 30 2019. [Picture: DW]*

Worry

Nampula province in northern Mozambique has in recent years become known as a corridor for human trafficking. Cases in the region have increased since late 2014 with more abduction and trafficking of people with albinism, presumably motivated by superstition. Non-governmental organisations say they received reports of at least 100 attacks on albinos in the country in 2015.

The Catholic Association “A Cry for Life”[“Um grito pela vida”], founded three years ago in Nampula, has made people aware of this problem.

“We formed this group because we have recently been facing various situations of disappearance of children and of albinos,” Angolan missionary Eva Ribeiro, a member of the association, says.

“We want to help the people to prevent these evils that are plaguing the city of Nampula. We give small talks and information about the trafficking of children, adolescents, youth and other social groups,” she adds.

On Tuesday (July 30), the association took part in a protest march against trafficking in persons in Nampula.

Source: Deustche Welle