A 44-year-old man was kidnapped on Saturday afternoon on a central avenue in Maputo by at least four armed elements, a source from the National Criminal Investigation Service (Cernic) confirmed to Luse today.
According to the same source, the kidnapping took place at 14:50 (13:50) on Avenida Eduardo Mondlane, and the victim was the son of a businessman, the owner of an establishment selling electrical equipment.
There was a shootout with agents of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) who were nearby, but this did not prevent the kidnapping.
“There was a shootout with PRM agents who were patrolling the area,” a Lusa source said.
Mozambique police have recorded a total of 185 kidnapping cases through March, and at least 288 people have been detained on suspicion of involvement in the crime since 2011, the interior minister said in March.
“The city of Maputo has the highest trend and number of criminal cases of kidnapping, followed by the province of Maputo and finally Sofala with a record of 103, 41 and 18 cases respectively,” Minister Pascoal Ronda said on December 19 last March.
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi acknowledged in Maputo this week that kidnappings remain a problem in the country and asked police to identify their “masterminds”.
“To a certain extent, cases of kidnapping [nos últimos cinco anos] were more enlightened than in previous periods, although we recognize that their eradication still represents a challenge for our National Criminal Investigation Service and other law enforcement agencies,” Filipe Nyusi said at the Coordination Council of the Ministry of the Interior in Maputo
Nyusi asked police to introduce “ordinary people” to Mozambicans about kidnappings in the country as one of the mechanisms to stop this type of crime.
“Bring in even one director, you will see that the narrative will change because the directors are very scared, we just need to take a certain measure and they will soon run away,” the head of state said, calling for increased attention to Sernik.