Watch: Mozambique mulls creation of anti-kidnap unit – president

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Watch: Mozambique mulls creation of anti-kidnap unit – president

4:16 CAT | 17 Dec 2020

Photo: Domingo

President Filipe Nyusi yesterday floated the possibility of creating an anti-kidnapping unit to fight the outbreak of this type of crime, with 16 cases registered already this year.

“As a Government, we have not given up, and we have already given instructions as to the possibility of creating an anti-kidnapping unit,” President Nyusi said during his State of the Nation Address in parliament yesterday.

The president said Mozambique would seek support from other countries.

“We will have to request some assistance, because there are countries which have managed to eliminate this problem. We know that these are complex and extremely organised crimes, involving a dangerous and sophisticated chain of practitioners,” he said.

“Our ability to clarify [crimes], we must accept, still leaves something to be desired,” he said, adding: “We will therefore have to improve our ability to intervene.”

Nyusi acknowledged that “more needs to be done, and done better” in the fight against this crime, and that the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), “with civil society and other entities, should do everything to wage an energetic fight against this type of crime”.

President Nyusi noted that, this year, there are 16 criminal cases proceeding (six in Maputo City, five in Sofala province, three in Manica province and two in Maputo province), three clarified – with four defendants charged – and six victims returned to their families.

In October, a group of businesspeople in the city of Beira, Sofala province, central Mozambique, stopped activities for three days in protest against the wave of abductions in the country.

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), the largest employers’ association in the country, has also on several occasions demanded a more robust fight against this type of crime.