NGO calls for greater effort to locate journalist, two months after his disappearance – Mozambique

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NGO calls for greater effort to locate journalist, two months after his disappearance – Mozambique

1:33 CAT | 08 Jun 2020

File photo: Sala da Paz

Two months after the disappearance in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, of journalist Ibraimo Mbaruco, the Southern African Social Communication Institute (MISA) in Mozambique is calling for a greater effort to be made to locate him.

“It is extremely worrying that there is still no information. We continue to wait and reiterate our appeal for him to be located,” executive director of the press freedom watchdog Ernesto Nhanale told Lusa on Friday.

Several international organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Union, have already expressed their concern over the journalist’s disappearance and asked the authorities to clarify the case.

The Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) says it continues to investigate the case.

“Efforts are being made to locate him, and the PRM command-general will make an announcement in due course,” Cabo Delgado police spokesman Augusto Guta said.

Ibraimo Mbaruco, a journalist at Rádio Comunitária de Palma, in Cabo Delgado, disappeared on April 7 in unknown circumstances, family members and a radio station source told Lusa at the time.

According to MISA, Ibraimo’s last known SMS before he disappeared was to one of his co-workers, simply stating that he was “surrounded by the military”. What happened next remains unknown.

Mozambican authorities have denied for four months that the journalist had been detained by them, reiterating that the case is still under investigation.

MISA has written to the Presidency of the Republic of Mozambique, calling on head of state Filipe Nyusi to “activate mechanisms” and restore the journalist to freedom.

At an April 24 meeting with MISA, the presidency suggested that the organisation submit the case to the attorney general, which the victim’s family in Cabo Delgado had already done.

Speaking in the Assembly of the Republic on May 21, Attorney General Beatriz Buchili said that the PGR case on the matter was “under preparatory instruction” (investigation phase).

Cabo Delgado, where megaprojects for natural gas extraction are in progress, has been grappling with attacks by armed groups classified as terrorists, which have killed at least 600 people in the last two-and-a-half years, causing a humanitarian crisis affecting 211,000 people.

In 2019, local journalists Amade Abubacar and Germano Adriano, who were covering the insurrection in the region, were detained by the authorities for four months on charges of violating state secrets and inciting disorder and mistreated, in a case contested by the United Nations and other organisations.

Source: Lusa