MAPUTO – “People are living in fear as they don’t know who will be next.” This was said by the president of the Islamic Council of Mozambique, Sheikh Ameen Udeen.
Speaking to Lowvelder about the current situation in the neighbouring country, Udeen stated that the majority of the population were very worried. “People are scared even to attend weddings or family gatherings as the kidnappers could grab them anytime and anywhere.”
He said most people were afraid to approach police because of the numerous times that they had been linked to being involved in the incidents. He stated he’d had many meetings with the minister of the interior Mr Alberto Mondlane regarding the situation.
And yet, despite this, he said the abductions were continuing, and three cases had already been reported in January.
Last year Lowvelder reported that there’d been an influx of wealthy Mozambican families who had purchased property in Nelspruit due to the kidnapping situation. Udeen stated that more families were still relocating for the same reason.
Media in Mozambique reported on three new cases
On January 17 a boy aged 8 was kidnapped in the afternoon in the Esturo area of Beira, by three individuals armed with a gun. They threatened the driver transporting the child and his mother, in front of the house gates of one of their relatives.
According to the driver, Mr Maite Paulo, as the mother and child got ready to get out of the car they found themselves surrounded by the criminals, who dealt the driver a blow.
“It was all very fast but they did not shoot at us, although they threatened us with death. As we were about to get out of the car, three men came with a gun and beat me, threatening the woman and consequently taking her mobile phone and the child,” he said.
“I believe they followed us from Palmeiras. Arriving, we didn´t see any cars parked nearby. As I switched of the car engine to let the lady and her son to get down, the men appeared armed…it was all so fast that we can´t explain the car’s details,” added the driver.
On the morning of January 14 four men kidnapped Mr Nasser Momad from his home in the neighbourhood of Bunhica, in the southern Mozambican city of Matola, reported the Maputo daily Noticias.
One of the neighbours said he recognised among the gang,a policeman of the fifth precinct in the Matola suburb of Machava. The presence of this supposed policeman initially led the neighbour to believe that he was witnessing an arrest rather than an abduction.
Nasser Momad (who goes by the nickname of “Mulato”) was seized at about 10:30. The gang arrived in four vehicles, armed with AK-47 assault rifles. They blocked the access and then invaded the house which their victim had been renting for the past six months.
They broke down the door. Some of them then ransacked the house, apparently looking for money and other valuables, while the others forced Momad into one of the cars.
“There were several shots and he was hit in the right foot,” said one of the eyewitnesses. “We followed all their movements and saw them take him away in a white Toyota Land Cruiser.”
The spokesman for the Maputo provincial police command, Mr Joao Machava, confirmed the incident, and said police units were on the ground following up clues. He declined to give any further information lest it compromise the investigation.
On January 11 a gang of eight armed men kidnapped businessman Mr Kishoor Chootalal on Filipe Samuel Magaia Avenue, in the heart of Maputo. Chootalal, a well known member of the Maputo Hindu community, owned the shop “Casa Pandia” which sold the brightly coloured fabrics known as “capulanas”.
According to eyewitnesses, the kidnappers, using a Nissan Elgrand vehicle, intercepted Chootalal’s Land Cruiser as he was returning to his shop, dragged him out, and bundled him into their own vehicle.
As they did so, they fired shots into the air, to scare off bystanders. One of Chootalal’s bodyguards tried to prevent the kidnapping, and was shot by the criminals. He was taken to Maputo Central Hospital for medical treatment.
One eyewitness, speaking on condition of anonymity, praised the bodyguard’s courage. “He had been shot, yet he chased the bandits,” he said. “They were wearing bullet-proof jackets and made off at high speed along Ahmed Sekou Toure Avenue, and as they did so they bumped into other cars.”
In these collisions the number plate of the Nissan, ADW 896 MP, was ripped off.
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