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Voa (File photo) / Businesspeople complain of fuel theft
Police in Sofala have put a stop to the theft of fuel from the port of Beira orchestrated by a sophisticated network with unlicensed tanks and sales stations in residential backyards which has cost business owners and the state dearly for several years.
“The police have set up a police station right in the harbour zone and have been patrolling the corridor where there was a fuel robbery situation. We can say that there has been a significant reduction in the theft of fuel in the port since the last quarter of 2016,” Sofala police command spokesman Sididi Paulo said.
With this squadron and the reinforcement of existing means, “the police have responded quickly in containing the foci of fuel theft, ensuring that no case has been recorded since September 2016,” Paulo said.
However, assaults on freight leaving the port of Beira in the Munhava area, particularly trucks loaded with grain for neighbouring countries, still occur.
“We met with the local community and launched several appeals, and, with the management of the port, consensus was reached that no one was going to move goods without having the police force there, and that when they contract services to private forces, those too would send information to the police or port police station,” Paulo explained, adding that nighttime unloading had been cancelled.
Fuel theft and assaults on freight lorries are usually carried out by groups of young people just outside the port of Beira. The thieves live near the port and the scheme is organized with informal fuel dumps at their residences.
The merchandise is marketed in parts of Beira city and in other areas of the country.
Since the end of 2016, the police have been coordinating actions with the Beira port operators, carriers and the Mozambique Railways to contain the theft of fuels and other goods
Speaking off the record to VOA, one Beira businessperson said that the police would still have a difficult job cracking down completely on the theft of fuel and other goods because the thieves constantly changed strategies.
“It’s no longer stolen the old fashioned way. There are new, more sophisticated methods,” the source claimed.
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